Business
International Investment Agreements Notification
International Investment Agreements Notification.
About this update from Ferrexpo Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n19 March 2025\nFerrexpo plc\n(\"Ferrexpo\" or the \"Group\")\n \nNotification to Ukraine under international investment agreements\nFerrexpo plc (LSE: FXPO) announces that the Company and its subsidiary, Ferrexpo AG, have provided a formal written notification to Ukraine under international investment agreements in place between Ukraine and the United Kingdom and Ukraine and Switzerland (the \"UK-Ukraine BIT\" and \"Swiss-Ukraine BIT\", respectively).\nBackground\nAs previously announced on 5 March 2025, a statement was made by the State Bureau of Investigation in Ukraine (SBI) stating that the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv had granted a request of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine to transfer to Ukraine's Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) an unspecified percentage of corporate rights of 16 legal entities in Ukraine, including 49.5% of the corporate rights of Ferrexpo Poltava Mining. Ferrexpo Plc, Ferrexpo AG and Ferrexpo Poltava Mining (FPM) have still not received any official documentation or requests from the Ukrainian authorities with regards to the Court decision.\nThe SBI statement followed a separate press release made by the SBI twelve days earlier, in which the SBI said it was preparing to lodge a claim together with Ukraine's Ministry of Justice to the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine, requesting the nationalisation of certain assets and corporate rights of FPM.\nThese are the latest steps in a series of actions and decisions taken by Ukrainian State bodies and the Ukrainian courts adverse to the Ferrexpo Group. There are currently more than ten significant civil and criminal cases open against the Ferrexpo Group that have resulted, at different points in time, in the freezing of shares in all of Ferrexpo's Ukrainian subsidiaries, the arrest of FPM's railway wagon fleet, the freezing of FPM's bank accounts and the detention of senior management personnel (including FPM's General Director) with the Ferrexpo Group having to pay in excess of US$16 million in bails to secure their release.\nLegal status\nThese actions and decisions are wholly without merit. They are contrary to Ukrainian law, and the underlying legal proceedings in Ukraine have been riddled with procedural defects and due process violations. Further, there is no reasonable nexus whatsoever between these actions and dec...