Ferrexpo's Countdown to August: Can the Iron Ore Miner Secure $100 Million and Lift Its Trading Freeze?
Published on 05/19/2026 at 01:07 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Ferrexpo is running out of time. The London-listed iron ore producer, whose shares have been suspended since 1 May, needs to line up at least $100 million in fresh equity before cash buffers run dry late this summer. Without that injection, the auditor will not sign off on the 2025 accounts, the share freeze will remain in place, and the company’s ability to continue as a going concern will be in doubt.
The operational damage from Russia’s war on Ukraine has been severe. In the first quarter, iron ore output slumped 72.1% year-on-year and 44.8% quarter-on-quarter to 592,751 tonnes. Pellet production – Ferrexpo’s core product – fell to roughly 525,000 tonnes. Only one of the group’s four pelletising lines is running, at about a quarter of full capacity, as repeated attacks on Ukraine’s power grid force the business to operate in stop-start mode. Staff have been furloughed or put on reduced hours, procurement has been scaled back, and all non-essential capital spending has been halted.
Management sees an equity raise as the only viable route to cover near-term obligations and sustain minimum operations for the next 18 months. Preliminary expressions of interest from institutional investors exceed $100 million, but the conditions attached to those commitments cannot be met within the required timeframe, according to the company. The largest shareholder, Fevamotinico, which owns 49.3% of the stock, has said it will support the capital increase and vote in favour of the necessary resolutions – provided it can participate pro rata and the total amount does not exceed $100 million.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Ferrexpo?
The cash crunch is compounded by a frozen tax receivables asset. Ukrainian authorities have halted value-added tax refunds, leaving Ferrexpo with a net VAT claim of $90.3 million trapped on the balance sheet. To buy a sliver of breathing room, the group sold the transshipment vessel "Iron Destiny" for a net $7.7 million. The ship had been largely idle since the war began but continued to generate maintenance and crewing costs. Even with that sale, available net cash is expected to last only until around the end of August 2026.
A further legal headache emerged in February, when a court in Poltava opened insolvency proceedings against Ferrexpo’s main mining facility. That case is still pending, adding another layer of uncertainty to the financing puzzle.
The share suspension stems directly from the audit deadlock. Ferrexpo was unable to publish its audited 2025 annual report by the 30 April regulatory deadline. The auditors, Deloitte or whoever (not named in sources), refuse to sign off until the company can present a confirmed funding solution that supports a clean going-concern opinion. Until that happens, trading in the stock will remain frozen. The last traded price was 28.58 pence – a level that underscores just how precarious the situation has become.
Shareholders will get their next formal update at the annual general meeting on 21 May, where the board will lay out the financing plan. Approval of the capital measure is a prerequisite for releasing the audited accounts and, ultimately, for restoring any liquidity to the shares. Whether the investor support that exists in principle can be converted into a binding commitment before the end of summer will determine Ferrexpo’s fate.
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