By John Helmer, Moscow When you are between the hammer of the Nigerian Navy and the anvil of the Nigerian Government, what is a Nigerian judge to do, if not make a very public show of doing nothing? In a new hearing in a Lagos court yesterday, Nigerian judge James Tsoho (centre) repeated the pattern […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 11th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Sovcomflot, the state-owned Russian fleet operator, intends to sell a 25% bloc of its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), according to a leak to Moscow business newspaper Vedomosti this week. However, the source identified as “close to the board of directors” does not know for how long the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 9th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow What is a bonus worth if it’s a promissory note for a value that is sinking towards zero in the short term, and cannot be converted to cash or dividends for years? How much loyalty would a zero-value note be expected to attract? On July 4, Rusal disclosed to the Hong […]

by John Helmer - Friday, July 5th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Swiss and French financial police have searched offices or homes in France as part of what the spokesman for the Swiss Attorney-General calls “our Uzbek case”. According to Jeannette Balmer, “perquisitions [searches] have been made in France on our request.” She declines to say when the searches were conducted, the addresses […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 4th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow The attempt by the Evraz steel group, owned by Roman Abramovich and others, to sell its South African steelmaking asset, Highveld Steel & Vanadium, for double its market value appears to have failed. The deadline Evraz had earlier announced for closing the deal with a South African front company called Nemascore […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow A spate of advertisements for an initial public offering (IPO) of shares, accompanying several rouble bond issues, makes the Lenta hypermarket chain of St. Petersburg appear to be diversifying its investor base with promises of strong growth and a wager on rising Russian consumer spending. In fact, Lenta’s largest shareholder, the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow A three-judge panel of the UK Court of Appeal has unanimously dismissed a claim by the Sovcomflot subsidiaries, Intrigue Shipping and Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship), for court and legal costs against former fleet charterer Yury Nikitin (second image). Endorsing the earlier judgements of High Court Justice Andrew Smith, the new ruling […]

by John Helmer - Monday, July 1st, 2013
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