London Stock Exchange suspends trading in more Russian firms
James Rutherford resigns from board of Evraz, steel and mining group in which Roman Abramovich has stake
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Last modified on Fri 4 Mar 2022 05.08 EST
The London Stock Exchange suspended trading in more Russian companies on Friday, while an independent director resigned from the board of Evraz, the steel and mining group in which Roman Abramovich holds a 29% stake.
The LSE suspended trading in the remaining eight companies with strong links to Russia that were not included on a list of 27 companies suspended on Thursday.
The companies trade financial instruments in London, including global depositary receipts and American depositary receipts, but not ordinary shares, which are traded in on other stock exchanges where they have their primary listings.
Also on Friday, Evraz – which has its primarily listing in London and is incorporated in the UK – announced that James Rutherford had resigned from the board immediately. Rutherford was a non-executive director at Evraz for only nine months and also holds directorships at the mining groups Centamin and Anglo Pacific.
His resignation comes a day after the Institute of Directors urged British nationals to quit Russian boards, saying it was “no longer tenable” for them to remain after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, adding that any directors of Belarusian firms should also quit.
Evraz also counts the former Ford executive Stephen Odell and Sir Michael Peat, a former private secretary to Prince Charles and whose family name is the p in KPMG, on its board.
Peat, who was paid $224,000 (£168,232) last year, is due to stand down at the end of March, having been a board member since 2011. Rutherford was paid $125,000 from his appointment last June until the end of last year. Odell was paid $138,000.
Evraz, which last week announced a dividend worth $450m to Abramovich, has so far not been caught in the sanctions being levelled at companies with strong links to Russia.
On Thursday, the London Stock Exchange suspended trading in 27 companies, including the energy and banking firms Gazprom and Sberbank. The LSE said it was taking the action “in light of market conditions, and in order to maintain orderly markets”.
On Friday, the LSE added the state-owned Federal Grid, Russia’s largest transmission company, the telecoms provider Rostelecom, the residential property developer Etalon, the supermarket chain O’Key, the fertiliser company Acron, the food retail chain Magnit, the investment firm Sistema and the commercial seaport Novorossiysk to its list of companies barred from trading in London.
However, Evraz is one of a number of companies linked to Russia that have so far not been barred because they have been assigned “UK nationality” by the LSE for trading purposes.
Nevertheless, international pressure is taking an increasing toll on Russian businesses, while the invasion of Ukraine is also disrupting those with operations in the region.
On Wednesday, Evraz and the precious metals mining group Polymetal dropped out of the FTSE 100 in its quarterly review after their market values plummeted.
The market value of Evraz has fallen by more than 80% since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
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