Abramovich banks £72m as he sells Evraz shares
Roman abramovich’s bestknown investment might be Chelsea Football Club, but the Russian oligarch is making hay with another holding that’s not exactly a household name.
He was one of four investors who said last night they are selling a combined stake equal to 1.8pc in steel maker Evraz through companies they have holdings in.
It is likely they are looking to cash in on Evraz’s recent success as a booming blue-chip stock.
Russ mould, investment director at broker aJ Bell, said: ‘Evraz is the sixth-best performing stock in the FTSE 100 in the year to date, with a gain of more than 30pc, thanks to big gains in the iron ore price after the disaster at a mine run by Vale in Brazil.
‘The timing of the decision to sell is therefore interesting, especially as Vale has just suspended activity at another Brazilian iron ore mine after a court order, which should in theory also be bullish for the commodity’s price and therefore Evraz’s shares.’
The other three shareholders are all Evraz management. at current share prices, the 1.8pc stake in the in the £8.9bn giant could be worth as much as £160m. abramovich, whose shares make up almost half of this sale, could pocket £72m. In December he held around a 31pc stake in the firm.
miners – including Evraz which climbed 1.9pc, or 11.6p, to 630p – pulled the FTSE100 higher yesterday after Vale’s announcement that it had been ordered to close another site.
London-listed miners Rio Tinto (up 2.8pc, or 116p, to 4267p), BHP (up 2.9pc, or 49.8p, to 1768.4p) and Anglo American (up 2.1pc, or 40.2p, to 1979.2p) all rose as well as markets expected the price of iron ore to rise on the more constrained supply.
The Footsie lifted by 0.98pc, or 70.91 points, to 7299.19, while the
FTSE 250 lost 0.02pc, or 4.33 points, to 19,486.70.
It’s probably too early to say revenge is proving sweet for former WPP chief Sir martin Sorrell. But in his own words his new company, S4 Capital, has at least hit the ‘sweet spot’.
Sorrell, 74, set up the venture in may, just weeks after his abrupt departure from WPP amid claims he used company money to pay for a prostitute, which he denies.
Unveiling S4 Capital’s inaugural results, Sorrell said the digital-focused advertiser has picked up a string of major clients in its first year.
The company, which has a staff of 1,200 in 16 countries, reported sales of £54.8m and a pre-tax loss of £9.1m. However, S4 Capital said sales and profit growth were up sharply in January and predicted better margins this year.
Sorrell said it will expand its operations globally and launch more takeovers if necessary. Shares rose 2pc, or 2.5p, to 126p.
Shares in stem cell research company Widecells surged by more than a third after the firm launched a media and technology company and proposed changing its name to Iconic Labs.
The group will now be led by the team of tech wizards who built Unilad into the world’s biggest social media publisher.
They have been installed in the firm by executive chairman and veteran financier David Sefton. Widecells shares rose 39pc, or 0.15p, to 0.54p.
and finally, Domino’s Pizza gained traction after it denied media reports that it has been misleading investors about progress in negotiations with the pizza chain’s franchisees.
Domino’s annual report showed that chief executive David Wild made £699,000 last year – half the £1.4m he took home in 2017 – as he missed out entirely on any profit-related bonus payments.
The pizza-delivery group gained 1.7pc, or 3.9p, to 234.7p.