The London stock market has long been home to companies based in, or exposed to, Russia as the bourse is the main exchange in the world for energy and mining giants.
A number of Russian firms also use the exchange for ‘secondary listings’ in addition to their primary listing in Moscow.
But these companies have been walloped by war – costing billionaire oligarchs a fortune while also hitting the savings of British families with money tied up in the stock market.
Imposing: Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square. Russian firms listed in London have been walloped by war
Share prices are expected to fall further as the West slaps more sanctions on Russia, damaging the country’s ability to do business around the globe.
Here we look at some of the main FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and AIM stocks with links to Russia.
Polymetal International
- Value: £3.2billion
- Shares this year: -48 per cent
Polymetal has nine gold and silver mines and three major projects in development throughout Russia and Kazakhstan.
The company is one of the top ten biggest gold groups, producing around 1.7million ounces of the yellow metal last year.
The company was set up in 1998 in St Petersburg by Alexander Nesis through his ICT Group.
The Russian businessman has previously been named as one of a string of oligarchs with links to Putin on a list put together by the US Treasury Department.
He remains Polymetal’s largest single shareholder with a 24 per cent stake and had a fortune of around £1.6billion yesterday, according to Forbes. His brother Vitaly has been the chief executive since 2003.
The only other major individual investor is Renata Kellnerova, widow of former investor Petr Kellner, a Czech billionaire and founder of PPF Group who died in a helicopter crash in March 2021, with a 3.4 per cent stake.
Evraz
- Value: £2.5billion
- Shares this year: -72 per cent
Evraz is Russia’s second largest steel company and was set up by former Soviet space scientist Alexander Abramov.
Founded as a small metal-trading business in 1992, its reach extends beyond Russia to the US, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Canada and South Africa.
It will reveal how much the jump in metals prices boosted its coffers in annual results released today.
It makes the vast majority of its money from steel and is supplies railways in the US and Russia.
Abramov, 63, owns 19 per cent of Evraz and also has a stake in the world’s biggest nickel producer Norilsk Nickel.
The self-made billionaire has a roughly £5billion fortune and in 2013 bought a £34million yacht from regular business partner and ally Roman Abramovich, who is Evraz’s largest investor with a 28.6 per cent slice.
Fellow oligarch Alexander Frolov owns 10 per cent.
Ferrexpo
- Value: £838million
- Shares this year: -52 per cent
Ferrexpo is an iron pellet producer in Ukraine, with three iron ore mines based in the under fire country. The company has performed well over the past year, boosted by rising prices of iron ore.
It is the world’s third-biggest supplier of pellets that feed directly into blast furnaces and are used to make steel.
But investors are worried that should Ukraine be overrun then the mines could fall into Russian hands.
![At risk: Ukraine-based Ferrexpo is the world's third-biggest supplier of pellets that feed directly into blast furnaces and are used to make steel](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/02/24/21/54621197-10548985-image-a-1_1645738648776.jpg)
At risk: Ukraine-based Ferrexpo is the world’s third-biggest supplier of pellets that feed directly into blast furnaces and are used to make steel
Operations could also be damaged by actions taken by the Ukrainian government, which has suspended rail transportation across the country.
Yesterday the company said it was monitoring the situation closely as some of its operations are located near the Russian border.
‘The situation remains fluid and unclear as to the full extent of Russia’s actions,’ a Ferrexpo spokesperson said.
The company was founded in 1960 by Kostyantyn Zhevago, a controversial character who is now on international most wanted lists.
He was forced to stand down in 2019 following allegations of embezzlement but remains the company’s top shareholder with over 50 per cent.
Trouble started when in early 2019 when Ferrexpo delayed publication of its results pending an investigation into charitable donations the company had made in Ukraine.
In April that year Deloitte resigned as auditors and in August Ferrexpo admitted that the charitable donations may have been misappropriated.
Zhevago also owns FC Vorskla Poltava, a Ukrainian football club that competes in the Ukrainian Premier League.
Petropavlovsk
- Value: £396million
- Shares this year: -48 per cent
Petropavlovsk is a gold mining company with operations across Russia. The miner was founded by entrepreneur Peter Hambro, a scion of the famous banking dynasty, known as the man with the Midas touch.
The Old Etonian set-up the company in 1990 and listed it on AIM in 2009, developing gold projects in the far flung Amur region in Russia’s far-east.
It has since grown to become a FTSE 250 company.
But it is best known for its boardroom tussles over the years.
In 2020 chief executive Maksim Meshcheriakov invaded the company’s Moscow office following a stand-off with staff.
CCTV footage showed Meshcheriakov and a group of men clambering over turnstiles to gain entry to the office.
It also captured them inside the company’s computer server room examining IT equipment before one of them disabled the CCTV camera in that area.
![Out of pocket: Raven co-founder Anton Bilton and his wife Lisa B](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/02/24/22/54622985-10548985-image-m-5_1645741188550.jpg)
Out of pocket: Raven co-founder Anton Bilton and his wife Lisa B
Afterwards the IT-systems and the HR’s database were destroyed, while the submission of reports to state regulatory bodies were interrupted.
Meshcheriakov faces a Russian criminal probe following his forced entry and was replaced as chief executive by Denis Alexandrov in December 2020.
Raven Property
- Value: £114million
- Shares this year: -41 per cent
Raven Property is a commercial property investment firm that owns warehouses across Russia, including in major cities such as Moscow and St Petersburg.
The group also operates a property management and marketing arm in Moscow.
Raven’s co-founder and deputy executive chairman is Anton Bilton, a British property tycoon and husband of American model and actress Lisa B.
Bilton is Raven’s fifth-largest shareholder with a stake of just under 7.2 per cent, which at the start of this year was worth nearly £13.8million.
However, following yesterday’s market rout the value of Bilton’s stake had plunged to around £8million.
Another notable name on the Raven board is chairman Sir Richard Jewson, who led estate agent giant Savills from 1994 to 2004 and last year stepped down as chairman of property investment trust Tritax Big Box.
And the minnows on AIM
The sell-off rippled across the market into the small caps, with a trio of AIM-listed firms with operations focused in Russia among those suffering the heaviest declines in yesterday’s session.
Eurasia Mining was the biggest faller on the junior market as its shares collapsed 48.8 per cent.
The company is focused on gold and other metals and has projects across Russia. It initially floated on AIM in 2004. Following close behind was Amur Minerals, which plunged 26 per cent.
The third-biggest faller on AIM yesterday was oil and gas group Petroneft Resources, which tumbled 26.5 per cent to an 11-month low of 1.8p.
Another small-cap stock hit hard yesterday was Ukraine-focused oiler Enwell Energy, which fell 33.1 per cent to 15.05p, its lowest price in 16 months.
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