By John Helmer in Moscow
On October 6, Peter Hambro claimed in an interview with Reuters Television that his proposed stock exchange listing of IRC Ltd., a titanium and iron-ore miner in the Amur and Jewish Autonomous Region of fareastern Russia, is his idea of a gift: “We’ve always wanted to give Russian people access to ownership of shares in what is effectively a Russian company,” said Hambro.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
“Never apologize and never explain. It’s a sign of weakness”. That line comes from a 1949 film called “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”. In that one, John Wayne played a cavalry commander on the verge of retirement who tries to beat his Cheyenne foes one more time. He fails at that, but ends up doing the right thing by the girl (white girl).
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By John Helmer in Moscow
The arrest for debt of MV Lyubov Orlova, an Arctic and Antarctic cruise ship almost as famous as her namesake, a Soviet movie star, continues to mystify industry sources in Moscow. That is because noone is owning up to owning the vessel, and thus to responsibility for the court-ordered seizure by marshals in the Canadian port of St. John last week.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
In the business of bloodsucking, noone does it better than Glencore of Baar, Switzerland. They call it trading.
The way it works is that Glencore sinks its teeth into anyone unknowing, foolish, impoverished or desperate enough to come within range. Glencore then trades on 18% or higher profit margins for export sales, which no producer would tolerate if he’s in his right mind and health. So Glencore turns him into a corpse, semi-alive in order to keep up the flow of the red stuff. The profits from trading commodities from companies in which Glencore owns equity positions is even better than the straight trading ventures. In Russia, this is known as transfer pricing or cash and asset stripping. It’s illegal, although the law is almost never enforced.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York) decided yesterday that the US racketeering statute can reach Russian wrongdoers only if their deeds are done on American territory. Running the loot, laundering, or spending it through US banks and bank accounts, or on American real estate and other haven assets, isn’t enough to allow jurisdiction, the 3-judge panel has decided, following the precedent of a new Supreme Court ruling issued early this year.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
The Russian steelmaking group Evraz announced today that it has cancelled the sale of its Connecticut-based vanadium producer, Strategic Minerals Corporation (Stratcor). Without giving a reason, the announcement says the company “notes the recent publications regarding the possible sale of…Stratcor…Following a comprehensive analysis of Evraz’s strategic options in relation to its US vanadium subsidiary Stratcor, Evraz has terminated negotiations regarding the possible divestment.”
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By John Helmer in Moscow
For weeks now, Yury Luzhkov has been receiving ultimatums to resign, along with black valentines for his wife. Yesterday, he did a Metaxas.
Ioannis Metaxas, a career army officer with more military skill than brains, ran Greece as a dictator from 1936 until his death in January of 1941. He was fascist, meretricious, cruel, and his regime was corrupt.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
One of the lucrative carry trades is about to be chopped.
A new report by the UK market regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has warned that it intends to crack down on links between companies preparing share market sales and financial media reporters and columnists, the effect of which, according to the FSA, has been to unlawfully hype share price and make money on the sly. In short, market abuse by insiders and their media accomplices.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
The Sakha government has agreed to a reorganization of the Alrosa shareholding, legalizing open-market trading of Alrosa shares for the first time, and promising a privatization of state-owned shares soon.
The Yakuts will not agree, however, to privatizing more than 20% to 25% of Alrosa shares; the federal government and Alrosa chief executive, Fyodor Andreyev, have been wanting to sell up to 49%.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Sovcomflot, the Russian state-owned tanker group, reports that, despite rising revenues of $678.6 million in the first six months of this year — up 11% over the same period of 2009 — earnings have fallen 4% to $292.6 million; and net income has dropped 5% to $111.2 million. Revenues rose in part because the company has added 11 vessels to its operating fleet, with a total now of 10.5 million deadweight tonnes, making an increase of 13% in fleet tonnage. The fleet gains include four new Suezmax oil tankers and one ice-class shuttle tanker for operations in the Arctic.
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