Tycoon cuts ties with Deripaska
But Cameron crony clings on to job with sanction-hit Russian
GLENCORE’S boss has severed ties with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska as US sanctions on allies of Vladimir Putin begin to take effect.
Ivan Glasenberg, the billionaire boss of the FTSE 100 mining group, quit the board of Deripaska’s aluminium firm Rusal as business leaders with links to the Russian ran for the hills.
The 61-year-old also abandoned plans for Glencore to swap its stake in Rusal for a stake in EN+, another of Deripaska’s firms.
The move followed the resignation of two directors from London-listed group EN+.
But despite growing condemnation of the oligarch’s ties to the Kremlin – and even allegations he ordered a murder – former energy minister Lord Barker remains as chairman of EN+.
The 52-year-old Tory peer, who served under David Cameron, is one of only two non-Russian directors on the board of EN+ after independent director Dominique Fraisse and non-executive director Guang Ming Zhao both stepped down.
Shares in Russian companies have tumbled along with the rouble since Donald Trump last week slapped sanctions on a host of oligarchs and their firms, including Deripaska, 50.
Timothy Ash, an analyst at Bluebay Asset Management, said: ‘This is a game changer for the market. The message to US and Western institutional investors is clear: you hold or trade Russian securities at your own risk. You have been warned.’ The US is taking aim at President Putin and his allies following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and alleged attempts to ‘subvert Western democracies’. It comes in the wake of the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.
Deripaska, who notoriously entertained Labour grandee Lord Mandelson and ex- chancellor George Osborne on his £80m yacht in Corfu in 2008, has been accused by the US of acting or purporting to act directly or indirectly on behalf of the Russian government. The US noted he has been probed for money-laundering and accused of bribing a government official, ordering the murder of a businessman and having links to organised crime.
Deripaska says the decision to sanction him is ‘groundless, ridiculous and absurd’.
Barker was hired to chair EN+ last October in a bid to reassure the City ahead of its listing in London. He has not responded to requests for comment since the sanctions were imposed. But sources told the Financial Times he was carrying out his duty as independent non- executive chairman representing minority shareholders during the crisis.
They stressed his decision could change. EN+ has admitted that sanctions ‘may be materially adverse to the business and prospects of the group’.
It added on Monday: ‘Investors are advised to exercise extreme caution when dealing in the securities of the company.’