More bosses snub oligarch

MORE senior bosses have deserted Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s sanctions-hit aluminium firm EN+.

Chief executive Vladislav Solovyev, 44, and finance chief Andrey Yashchenko, 44, have both stepped down in the wake of US sanctions slapped on the firm three weeks ago.

David Cameron’s former energy minister Lord Barker remains as chairman. Despite pressure to step down Barker, 52, has so far maintained that he plans to stay on to protect the interests of minority shareholders. He was hired last October to help reassure the City as EN+ listed on the London Stock Exchange. Shares have been suspended in the wake of the sanctions.

Yesterday EN+ appointed Mikhail Khardikov as chief finance officer and Vyacheslav Solomin as chief executive.

The US announced sanctions on Deripaska and his eight companies including EN+, along with other Russian individuals and firms, in response to ‘malign activities’ by Russia and Deripaska’s closeness to Putin. It sent reverberations around the world as Deripaska’s business empire includes the world’s second largest aluminium producer Rusal and counts major international companies as customers.

Ivan Glasenberg, the billionaire chief executive of mining titan Glencore, has quit the board of Rusal.

Glencore also stopped plans to swap its 8.75pc stake in Rusal for a stake in EN+.

EN+ independent director Dominique Fraisse and nonexecutive director Guang Ming Zhao have also both stepped down from the board.