Ferrexpo CEO Jim North has unexpectedly decided to leave the company after leading it for three years, beginning in 2020.
According to a stock exchange report Tuesday, Jim North announced he is stepping down as CEO and executive director of the company after nine years with the group to pursue other opportunities.
It clarifies that North will step down as CEO after an orderly management transition process beginning June 30, 2023. Ferrexpo announced North’s appointment as acting CEO on May 18, 2020.
North will leave the company’s board of directors following the conclusion of its annual general meeting on May 25, 2023, and will also step down as a director of various group subsidiaries.
“As a result, Resolution No. 10 of the upcoming annual general meeting (which represents a resolution to re-elect Mr. North as a director of the company) will be withdrawn and will not be voted on by shareholders at the annual general meeting,” the press release states.
It is also reported that Lucio Genovese, chairman of the board, will serve as interim executive chairman and will assume leadership of the group beginning July 1, 2023.
In addition, the Board of Directors announced the appointment of Ferrexpo Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Nikolai Kladiev as executive director of the company, effective at the conclusion of the upcoming annual general meeting of shareholders. Kladiev joined Ferrexpo in 2005 and has been a member of the group’s executive committee since 2007. He was appointed CFO of the group in July 2021.
Lucio Genovese thanked North for his significant contributions to Ferrexpo over the past nine years and for his role in guiding and shaping the group’s strategy since he became chief executive in 2020. “Jim was appointed as CEO at a time when we were focused on accelerating growth, leading Ferrexpo’s decarbonization plans and further cultural development within the business. However, given the situation in Ukraine with the ongoing war and uncertain outlook, we have had to slow down our growth programs, and the CEO’s focus inevitably shifts to ensuring business continuity and operational sustainability,” Genovese said.
Earlier, Fiona MacAulay, a non-executive director of Ferrexpo plc, a British mining company with assets in Ukraine, announced her intention to leave the group after the 2023 annual general meeting in connection with her appointment as a non-executive director of Dowlais Group Plc, which has become a public company. Fiona MacAulay is currently a senior independent director and a non-executive director of the company.
Even earlier, Ferrexpo’s independent non-executive director, Ann-Christin Andersen, declined to run for the company’s next board in May 2023. “Independent non-executive director Ann-Christin Andersen has notified the board that she will not run for re-election at the company’s next annual general meeting in May 2023,” Ferrexpo’s annual report reported.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine.
Ferrexpo owns 100% of Yeristovsky GOK LLC, 100% of Poltava GOK PJSC and 99.9% of Belanovsky GOK LLC.
Oil prices are stable in trading on Tuesday after declining the day before on increased fears of declining demand.
The price of July futures for Brent on London’s ICE Futures Exchange stood at $79.27 a barrel by 8:05 a.m. Tuesday, down $0.04 (0.05%) from the close of the previous session. Those contracts fell $1.02 (1.3%) to $79.31 a barrel on Monday.
The price of WTI futures for June oil grew by $0.02 (0.03%) to $75.64 per barrel at electronic trades of New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by that time. The contracts value has decreased by $1.12 (1.5%) to $75.66 per barrel at the end of previous session.
Investors are waiting for the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate again this week, worried that further tightening of monetary policy in the U.S. will trigger a global recession, Market Watch noted.
China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing industry fell to a four-month low of 49.2 points in April from 51.9 points in March, data from China’s State Bureau of Statistics (SBS) showed. The value of the index below 50 points indicates a decline in activity in the sector. PMI in April fell below this mark for the first time since December.
In April Brent has fallen in price by 0.3% and WTI has risen by 1.5%.
The unified registry of missing persons was launched on Tuesday, May 2, the Ministry of Reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine said.
“Starting today, data on missing persons will be entered into the unified register of missing persons. The register was developed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs together with the Commissioner for Missing Persons and other agencies,” the press service of the Ministry of Reintegration said in a statement on Tuesday.
It is noted that the registry will collect and centralize data on missing persons: Full name of the person, place and date of birth, marital status, place of residence, territory where the disappearance occurred, circumstances and time of disappearance, signs of the disappeared.
The registry will also include information on the presence or absence of a court decision to declare a person missing or declared dead, as well as other data used to ensure the registration of persons.
We remind that earlier editors and publishers of major Ukrainian media launched a project to find missing civilians – “Find the loved ones”. The project was designed to search for loved ones during the most difficult days of the war.
The initiator and coordinator of the project “Find your loved ones” is the deputy head of the news agency “Interfax-Ukraine” and publisher of the project Open4Business Maxim Urakin.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has registered in the Verkhovna Rada bills “On extending martial law in Ukraine” and “On extending the period of general mobilization.”
The cards of bills No. 9259 and No. 9260 appeared on the parliament’s website on Monday evening.
The texts of the documents have not yet been made public.
As reported, Golos faction member Yaroslav Zheleznyak indicated that martial law and mobilization in Ukraine will probably be extended for 90 days – from May 19, 2023 to mid-August.
Earlier, on February 7, the Rada extended martial law and general mobilization in Ukraine for another 90 days (from February 19, 2023).
The U.S. administration has announced the cancellation of the requirement for mandatory vaccination against coronavirus for foreign nationals arriving in the country starting May 12.
“We are announcing that the administration will waive the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement for employees of federal agencies, federal contract workers and passengers arriving on international air flights as of May 11,” the White House said in a statement.
The U.S. began requiring foreign nationals entering the country to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 beginning in November 2021. Only certificates of vaccination with vaccines approved by the U.S. health regulator or WHO will be accepted.
In April 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden lifted the national state of emergency imposed in 2020 because of COVID-19.
Shareholders of agroholding Astarta will consider paying a dividend of EUR0.5 per share for 2022, worth EUR12.5 mln, the company said in a statement on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
According to the statement, the distribution of profits for the previous year will be discussed at the May 24 shareholder meeting, which will be held on April 19.
In addition, shareholders are expected to instruct the board to hold talks with the company’s current auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and its competitors, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and Baker Tilly, and, depending on the outcome, appoint one of these firms as external auditor.
As reported, Astarta first paid a EUR12.155 million dividend in June 2021 based on its 2020 performance in the same amount as currently proposed – EUR0.5 per share. In the military year 2022, the company refused to pay them.
Agropromholding Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, received EUR65.16 million in net profit in 2022, down 46.8% from 201.
Holding EBITDA last year decreased by 23.2% – to EUR154.77 mln, while revenues increased by 3.8% – to EUR510.07 mln.
Astarta shares rose 1 percent last Friday to PLN30.45 per share (about EUR6.6 per share).
“The company’s policy is to pay dividends at a level consistent with the Group’s growth and development plans, while maintaining a reasonable level of liquidity. The dividend policy will, however, be reviewed from time to time and the payment of any future dividends will actually be at the discretion of the general meeting of shareholders upon recommendation of the board of directors and taking into account various factors, including business prospects, future earnings, cash requirements, financial situation, expansion plans and Cyprus law requirements,” the company said in the dividend policy.
