Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
This is good news although it is hard to see Putin doing a complete withdrawal.
If your country goes to war, the UK government will take your property.
Sorry should say property law
While I understand the reasons for the sanctions, they do go against fundamental principles such as purport law and innocent until proven guilty. Now we've crossed that bridge, where will it end. The UK was famed for its strong rights and legal system. It made it a prized country to invest in. We risk breaking the trust we have built up over many centuries for the sake of posturing.
Key individuals and businesses sanctioned today
ALFA-BANK JSC (Alfa-Bank), the largest of the private banks in Russia and is based in Moscow. Alfa-Bank ranks among the top 10 largest banks in terms of capital in Russia and Ukraine. It is a distinct entity to distinct from Alfa-Bank (Ukraine) which has not been sanctioned.
Alrosa, the world’s largest diamond mining company specializing in exploration, mining, manufacture, and sale of diamonds. It is headquartered in Mirny, Russia and its market capitalization is reported as an estimated £4.69 billion.
Eugene Markovich Shvidler, is a billionaire businessman with close business links to Roman Abramovich (designated by the UK on 10 March 2022). His net worth is reported as an estimated £1.2 billion.
Oleg Tinkov, founder of Tinkoff Bank. His net worth is reported as an estimated £3.4 billion.
Herman Gref, Chief Executive Officer of Sberbank, the largest Russian bank. Gref is a close advisor of President Putin since they started working together in the St Petersburg Government in the 1990s. He served as Putin’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade between 2000 and 2007, before taking over at Sberbank.
Oleg E Aksyutin, the Deputy Chairman of the Management Board at Gazprom PJSC, the Russian multinational energy corporation.
Didier Casimiro, the First Vice President of Rosneft, the Russian State oil company.
Zeljko Runje, the Deputy Chairman of the Management Board and First Vice President for Oil, Gas, and Offshore Business Development of Rosneft.
Galina Danilchenko, installed as ‘mayor’ of Melitopol by Russian authorities after their military occupied the city and kidnapped the legitimate mayor. This is the first designation by any partner country for collaboration with the Russian military in Ukraine since the invasion.
Polina Kovaleva, stepdaughter of Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. She reportedly owns a c.£4 million property in London. This sends a strong signal that those benefiting from association of those responsible for Russian aggression are in scope of our sanctions.
Protraderx - you sound unusual. Tell me about yourself
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky advised President Biden in a recent phone call to wait on sanctioning the oligarch, who might prove important as a go-between with Russia in helping to negotiate peace, according to people with knowledge of the call.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukrainian-president-asked-biden-not-to-sanction-abramovich-to-facilitate-peace-talks-11648053860
Note - suspension does not equal sanction. Evraz has never been sanctioned by OFSI. FCA suspended Evraz from LSE in order to consider how RA sanctions affect investors. RA being sanctioned changes what the company can do, eg pay dividends, and therefore has a material and unknown effect on the usual share rights etc
Everyone is forgetting the bond holders. They would have whinged loudly at the bank withholding their money.
Evraz is a huge company playing in the big league. The big league investors have direct contact with governments and each other.
There are too many stakeholders for evraz to be disappeared by the government. If nothing else there are 70000 employees. 70000!!! Think of the trade union pressure alone, especially in NA.
Then there's the banks and lawyers and auditors and investors all with multi million debts/ contracts. They are going to fight too.. And suppliers and customers in the middle of billion dollar projects.
Evraz can't be killed off just like that
Evraz is not sanctioned - it would have been said - but many financial institutions refusing to deal with any Russian companies, santioned or not. Either for reputational issues or for compliance reasons maybe (too costly to confirm transactions do not involve a sanctioned perosn). Evraz is not Russian, but it does have oligarch shareholders, so any transactions are tainted with the potential to involve a sanctioned person somewhere down the line. The thing is, Russia is a big trading partner, and this is going to rupture the financial systm and the economy. I suspect things will have to slackened to a point, or Putin got rid of quickly.
With a company as big as Evraz there are so many stakeholders, from shareholders, to lenders, to employees, to trade unions, to suppliers, to customers. The amounts at stake are vast. The bond under question has a principal of £750m alone, and that is just one of the bonds. In the end I think OFSI are going to have to install a member of staff in the offices of Evraz to sign off all payments or something like that. If they dont find a solution, the number of affected people if the copmany cannot make payments is going to rise to a loud roar in the ears of OFSI...
Luxembourg
However the company is able and willing to pay, but the problem is getting funds transferred. So there would be no point in getting a court order.
From the prospectus. In a nutshell the bond holders can try to get a Court to rule that assets are sold to pay off the bond holders.
if (i) proceedings are initiated against the Issuer, the Guarantor(s) (if any) or any Material Subsidiary under any applicable liquidation, insolvency, composition, reorganisation or other similar laws or an application is made (or documents filed with a court) for the appointment of an administrative or other receiver, manager, administrator or other similar official, or an administrative or other receiver, manager, administrator or other similar official is appointed in relation to the Issuer, the Guarantor(s) (if any) or any Material Subsidiary or, as the case may be, in relation to the whole or any part of the undertaking or assets of any of them or an encumbrancer takes possession of the whole or any part of the undertaking or assets of any of them, or a distress, execution, attachment, sequestration or other process is levied, enforced upon, sued out or put in force against the whole or any part of the undertaking or assets of any of them, and (ii) in any such case (other than the appointment of an administrator) unless initiated by the relevant company, is not discharged within 14 days; or
Yes but does RA control the other oligarchs? If he does not, then he doesn't control the company. They might do things in general agreement, but that does not mean the other oligarchs do not have independent thinking. Shareholders often agree on things, and collectively they control the company through agreement/ votes.
Kong - Evraz is not in any situation right now. You are making assumptions about the future. Evraz is trading normally (albeit with some hurdles eg EU sanctions against Russian steel). The shareholders are not Evraz. We are the ones with a situation, not Evraz. That may change but that is not certain at all. None of us know what will happen, we should go by the evidence, which is that Evraz - the company - has been left alone in US, Canada and here.
Company law has to be followed. Company law does not allow shareholders rights to be removed. Interaction between sanctions regulations and company law will be rather difficult to negotiate. I am sure lawyers are working on things now.
Kong - I can only see Abramovich on the sanctions list, not three
To answer your questions Kong
So who owns the company now ? The shareholders, including the Oligarchs. Their assets are frozen, not confiscated.
Who is running the company ? The directors, currently two
How are the 3 oligarchs shares going to be dealt with ? They will remain frozen until the government decides otherwise
Who is going to take control of the company ? Chairman , MDs senior management are all put in place by the shareholders and votes.
Current Directors. RA may be able to vote I do not think sanctions stop that.
How is all this going to happen now if the government acquires their shares ? There is no talk of the government acquiring their shares.
Will putin allow profits to be released to British banks ? Putin wants sanctions liftes. Putin also knows that money talks, and the biggest (only?) pressure on the UK governemnt will come from business. He wants them onside
Will putin allow Evraz ( the British company ) to keep the Russian factories ? See previous
If you know all these answers then tell us how this company is going to move forward in a positive way and how all the shareholders will keep all their monies and be paid handsome dividends going forward ! Comnpany keeps trading until something changes. Then either things better, or worse. We shall see.
The asset freeze means nobody can transact with RA on respect of his shares, eg actually buy them or facilitate him in any way. The suspension does not add anything to that - no broker would be allowed to assist him in selling his shares. But of course being suspended does make that a certainty.