A loyal reader discovered information in a March 11 release by Reuters in London. The article indicated that Russian steelmaker Evraz indicated last Friday that 10 members of its board had quit following the British sanction of the board’s largest shareholder Roman Abramovich and the suspension of its shares. Only the chief executive remained.
The action is a direct result of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and began with Britain freezing the assets and imposing a travel ban on the Russian owner of the Chelsea soccer club, along with six other senior Russians because of their links to Vladimir Putin. Abramovich was accused by the British government of destabilizing the Ukraine though his “effective control” of Evraz, which Britain said may have supplied steel to the Russian military for use in the production of tanks. Evraz said that
Abramovich, who has a 28.6% stake in the company, did not have effective control of the company because he did not have a majority (more than 50%) share of the company. Evraz also indicated that Abramovich also had no right to appoint or remove the majority of the board.
Evraz also said it only supplied long steel to the infrastructure and construction sectors. It said as a result it did not consider that the UK financial sanctions would apply to the company.
Last Friday, 10 of the 11 board members resigned with Chief Executive Aleksey Ivanov continuing as director. Evraz is waiting for further clarifications form the British Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation.
“Evraz is deeply concerned and saddened by the Ukraine-Russia conflict and hopes that a peaceful resolution will be found soon,” it said in a statement to the stock exchange.
The Greenhorn Valley View contacted the local Evraz factory and asked if any of the issues in Britain would affect the local work force. We were assured someone would get back to us, but at press time no one had returned our call.