London Stock Exchange suspends trading in 27 firms with strong links to Russia
The London Stock Exchange has suspended trading in 27 companies with strong links to Russia, including the energy and banking firms Gazprom and Sberbank
The LSE said it was moving to block trading in the companies that include Severstal, Russia’s largest steel and mining company run by Alexei Mordashov, the country’s richest man.
Also barred are the aluminium company EN+, whose owners include the oligarch Oleg Deripaska, state-controlled Gazprom, the world’s largest gas producer, Rosneft and VK, the parent company of social networking sites including VKontakte, which is bigger than Facebook in Russia.
The list also includes the fertiliser company PhosAgro, which is chaired by former LSE chief Xavier Rolet and has shareholders including the billionaire Andrei Guriev, who owns Witanhurst in London’s Highgate, the largest private house in the capital and second in size only to Buckingham Palace.
Also barred are the energy firm Lukoil, Russia’s largest gold producer Polyus, which is controlled by the family of Suleiman Kerimov, as well as Sberbank, the country’s biggest lender, and Novolipetsk Steel, one of the four largest steel companies in Russia.
The companies trade financial instruments in London including global depositary receipts (GDR) and American depositary receipts (ADR), but not ordinary shares, which are traded in on Russian stock exchanges, where they have their primary listings.
The LSE said it was taking the action “in light of market conditions, and in order to maintain orderly markets”.
However, David Schwimmer, the chief executive of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), said that seven Russian companies with London GDRs had not been suspended as this depended on further sanction. Their suspension could also be triggered by an inability to maintain an orderly market.
May 30, 2022