Polymetal postponed the move to Kazakhstan

The largest Russian silver producer and one of the country’s leading gold miners Polymetal postponed the date of completion of redomiciliation (change of place of official registration) from the British island of Jersey to the financial hub “Astana International Financial Center” (AIFC) in Kazakhstan from July 17 for at least two weeks. About it Polymetal announced June 29th.

“The company continues to work to meet the conditions necessary for the redomiciliation, but acknowledges that it does not fit into the planned schedule as a result of delays in the processes on which the redomiciliation depends,” the miner said in a statement. Polymetal also said it would notify shareholders of the exact updated redomiciliation schedule “as soon as possible”.

Polymetal shares on the Moscow Exchange reacted to the news with a drop of 1% to 535.8 rubles. per share at the opening of trading at 10:00 Moscow time. At 16:36 they were down 1.14% to 529.7 rubles per security.

Polymetal, which produces both in Russia and Kazakhstan, notes that the move can only take place after the completion of the annual general meeting of shareholders (AGM), which is scheduled for July 25, 2023. Therefore, the redomiciliation will not be completed before the week of July 31, explained in message. The agenda of the AGM included approval of the annual report, the composition of the board of directors and the appointment of an auditor.

The company previously planned to complete the redomiciliation on July 17. On this day, it was supposed to receive consent from the AIFC Committee on Regulation of Financial Services to continue its activities in the center (the company’s shares are already traded on the AIFC stock exchange). Also June 17 Polymetal was expecting unconditional consent and certification from the Registrar of Companies of Jersey to continue operations in another jurisdiction. By this date, the company had to submit a request to the UK Financial Conduct Authority and/or the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to suspend trading on the exchange where Polymetal’s shares are currently traded.

Maintain the current premium listing of its ordinary shares on the LSE after re-registration Polymetal will not be able to: guided by the EU sanctions from the ninth package, the depository denied the gold miner a premium listing through the issuance of new GDRs for a new Kazakh company.

According to Dmitry Smolin, senior analyst at Investbank Sinara, the postponement of the redomiciliation is technical in nature and is due to the fact that the company could not have time to hold the AGM before the deadline specified in the legislation of the island of Jersey – until July 31. “That’s probably why Polymetal did not want to take risks with the timing of the AGM and shifted the redomiciliation schedule,” he explained.

According to Smolin, information about the postponement of the completion of the redomiciliation will not affect the dynamics of the company’s shares in the short term.

The island of Jersey was included in the list of jurisdictions unfriendly to Russia due to the sanctions imposed after the start of the NWO in Ukraine. As a result, Russian enterprises Polymetal failed to transfer dividends to the parent company, and the parent company itself could not pay dividends to resident shareholders (EU sanctions also apply against the National Settlement Depository of Russia).

The shareholders of Polymetal approved the redomiciliation at an extraordinary general meeting on May 30, 2023. In the future, the division of the company into two independent ones on a country basis is being considered. The largest shareholders of Polymetal are Alexander Nesis with partners (through the ICT group they own 23.9% of the shares). 75.2% of the shares are in free float.

Polymetal’s Q1 2023 production was 345,000 GE oz, down 5% year-on-year. Revenue in January-March 2023 increased by 19% year-on-year to $733 million.