Oligarch’s mining giant has share trading halted
The London Stock exchange plans to halt trading in Russian aluminium and power producer
EN+ as a result of US sanctions. In a statement, the LSe said it would suspend eN+’ s global depository receipts – which allow UK investors to hold its shares – from 5.15pm on May 2.
The firm, controlled by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, has been hit by sanctions imposed by the US last month on companies with close ties to the Kremlin.
The sanctions mean firms such as eN+ will no longer be allowed to trade in US dollars from Monday, making it impossible to access international stock markets.
eN+ and its chairman, former UK energy minister Lord Barker, have appealed to the US Office of Foreign Assets and Control to extend the May 7 deadline so it can end Deripaska’s control of the firm.
Deripaska, who was targeted personally on the US sanctions list, last week agreed to shrink his stake in eN+ from 70pc to less than 50pc in a last ditch attempt to avoid the sanctions. But it has seemingly run out of time with the LSe confirming its shares will be suspended on the London market from today to comply with the US’s May 7 deadline.
In a statement, the exchange said it ‘will continue to monitor the situation and is in communication with the UK authorities’.
The FTSE 100 notched up 0.15pc, or 11.06 points, to 7520.36, while the FTSE 250 was up 0.31pc, or 63.27 points, at 20,348.32.
FTSe 100-listed National Grid, which controls the UK’s gas and electricity supplies, has sold its remaining 25pc stake in the country’s biggest gas distribution business, Cadent Gas, to Quadgas Investments Bidco for £1.2bn. Shares edged up 0.4pc, or 3.2p, to 846p. On the FTSe 250, analysts at Peel hunt gave their backing to online supermarket Ocado in the wake of Sainsbury’s touted £12bn merger with Asda.
Increasing Ocado’s target price from 570p to 610p, Peel hunt said: ‘The 10pc price cut on popular products announced by Sainsbury’s post- completion, while positive for customers, will further intensify competition and increase the loss-making potential of online offerings further, pushing the new top three to focus on securing their traditional offline models. Ocado should take advantage of this distraction.’
Ocado shares popped 3.2pc, or 17p, to 555.4p.
In the small caps, Bloomsbury, the publisher of the harry Potter books, snapped up London-based academic publisher IB Tauris & Co for £5.8m. Tauris has a back catalogue of 4,000 titles and puts out around 200 publications annually. Bloomsbury shares fell, however, by 0.3pc, or 0.5p, to 176.5p.
On AIM, struggling double glazing manufacturer Safestyle has parachuted in a turnaround specialist to improve its fortunes following last week’s profit warning.
Former First Milk boss Mike Gallacher, 52, has taken over as chief executive and will be tasked with wrestling back market share from aggressive new entrant Safeglaze. Shares floated 6pc, or 3.4p, higher to 59.2p.
Cora Gold shone after the miner discovered high-grade deposits of the yellow metal at two sites in Mali. Jonathan Forster, chief executive, said: ‘These are exciting new gold discoveries and hold great promise for further development.’ Shares in Cora jumped 25.5pc, or 3p, to 14.75p.
Software firm Imaginatik slumped after it warned it may need more cash to progress the formal sale of the company. Shares dipped 12pc, or 0.15p, to 1.1p.
Shares in Mortice, a security and facilities management firm, soared 18.6pc, or 4p, to 25.5p after it bought the remaining 49pc of its Singapore- based subsidiary Frontline Security for £1.9m.