Ferrexpo's Trilemma: A Conviction, a Manhunt, and a $17 Million Cash Burn Ahead of Shareholder Meeting
28.06.2026 - 16:07:22 | boerse-global.de
Ferrexpo goes into its annual general meeting at the end of May 2026 with the kind of agenda no management team wants to table. The Ukraine-based iron ore pellet producer is simultaneously fighting a corruption verdict, an international arrest warrant against its controlling shareholder, and a cash position that has fallen to just $17 million. The gathering — a routine affair on paper — has become a high-stakes chance for the board to explain how it plans to keep the company listed, let alone operational.
The cash squeeze stems from Ukraine’s suspension of value-added tax refunds, which has left Ferrexpo nursing a net receivable of $90.3 million. Mid-April saw available liquidity drop to the $17 million mark, forcing the miner to sell the transhipment vessel Iron Destiny for a net $7.7 million — a stopgap that barely plugs the hole. The company is still trying to raise at least $100 million in fresh capital, but delays have already triggered warnings about a possible suspension of its London Stock Exchange listing if audited 2025 results are not filed on time.
No sooner did the financial pressure become public than a Ukrainian court handed down a verdict that knits the company even tighter into a legal knot. On 26 June 2026, the High Anti-Corruption Court sentenced Vsevolod Knyazev, the former chairman of the Supreme Court, to five years in prison with asset forfeiture for taking a bribe. The payment was intended to secure a ruling that kept a 40.19% stake in Ferrexpo’s key subsidiary, the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant, under entities linked to the majority shareholder. The ruling deepens the already tangled ownership disputes around Ferrexpo’s Ukrainian mining operations.
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Parallel to that drama, Ukrainian investigators have opened court proceedings to place individuals close to the company’s management on an international wanted list. Billionaire and majority shareholder Kostyantin Zhevago is a suspect in a probe into embezzlement at the now-insolvent Finance & Credit Bank. The authorities are also pushing to transfer nearly half of Ferrexpo’s mining assets into state hands, a move the company has so far resisted.
Operationally, the business is running on a fraction of its pre-war capacity. Attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have knocked out three of four pelletising lines, and first-quarter production came in at 593,000 tonnes — roughly a quarter of the volume the mines could deliver before the invasion. Exports to customers in Austria, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea continue, but the ability to maintain quality and delivery schedules is under constant strain.
The shares closed at 28.58 pence on the London exchange, a level that reflects both the erosion in production and the mounting legal uncertainty. The AGM now offers management a platform to address shareholders directly, and to demonstrate that the company can still produce audited accounts, fend off state seizure attempts, and secure the capital injection that would keep the listing alive.
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