Charles’s former aide quits board of Evraz
A FORMER top aide to the Prince of Wales is among 10 directors who have resigned from the Evraz board after the Russian steelmaker’s largest shareholder, Roman Abramovich, was sanctioned and its shares were suspended.
Sir Michael Peat, who served as private secretary to Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall between 2002 and 2011, resigned with immediate effect as part of a boardroom clearout.
He had been due to step down at the end of the month after sitting on the Evraz board for nine years. That is the longest recommended tenure for directors under the UK’S corporate governance code.
However, Sir Michael’s sudden resignation was prompted by the Government hitting Mr Abramovich with sanctions, leading to the City watchdog pausing trading of its London-listed shares “to protect investors”.
In a notice on Thursday, government officials said Mr Abramovich was closely associated with Russian president Vladmir Putin and had been involved in “destabilising” and “undermining and threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence” of Ukraine through his business interests.
Mr Abramovich holds a 28.6pc stake in Evraz and was handed a £345m dividend from the steelmaker last month.
Alexander Abramov, Evraz’s longstanding chairman who owns nearly 20pc of the company, also resigned. Aleksey Ivanov, its chief executive, is now the only remaining director.
A product of Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, Sir Michael became a partner at KPMG before joining the Royal Household.
Evraz said it was “deeply concerned and saddened by the Ukraine-russia conflict and hopes that a peaceful resolution will be found soon”.