Kyiv court confirms Ferrexpo’s right to own a 40% stake in Poltava Iron Ore

Ukraine’s non-integrated iron ore miner Ferrexpo (FXPO LN) gained favorable court rulings in the Kyiv Economic Court in lawsuits filed by four Cyprian companies that demanded a return of a 40.1% stake in Poltava Iron Ore, Ferrexpo’s key mining asset. The court ruled on Oct. 20 and Oct. 27 to reject the demands of Gilson Investments and three other companies to return the shares, which they sold to SPVs of Kostyantyn Zhevago in 2002, the Interfax-Ukrayina news agency reported on Nov. 17. The court also declined appeals to cancel additional share issues of Poltava Iron Ore, which took place after the year 2002, and to block trading of the company’s shares.

The four companies who sold the 40% stake in Poltava Iron Ore in November 2002, which are related to Russian businessman and politician Alexander Babakov, have been trying to overturn the deal since 2005. After a series of court cases, Babakov got a favorable verdict in the High Economic Court of Ukraine in April 2011, but wasn’t able to return his stake since the initial buyers (the SPVs of Zhevago) had already sold it to another company (Ferrexpo). In addition, Poltava Iron Ore did multiple capital increases after the deal, which diluted the stake being challenged to 14%. In his attempt to cancel all the capital increases and return the sold 40% stake, Babakov was able to block all operations involving Poltava Iron Ore shares since March 2013.

Roman Topolyuk: Ferrexpo’s legal drama, which posed a long-runningrisk of losing a substantial part of the equity in Poltava Iron Ore, has finally reached its turning point. Babakov was able to achieve certain success in the courts after Viktor Yanukovych became president in 2010, even though cancelling the deal and new shares issues seemed difficult to achieve.

Now that the Yanukovych regime was overthrown, the threat of Babakov retaking his 40% stake is waning. He has several options to appeal the recent decision of Kyiv Economic Court, and we expect the process will continue for a long time. But the likelihood that Babakov will be successful is low now, we believe.