Iron ore majors ramp up supply even as China faces challenges
Iron ore is one of the year’s worst performing major commodities, slumping by almost a quarter as China’s property crisis drags on.
Kostyantin Zhevago, the billionaire owner of Ukrainian iron producer Ferrexpo Plc, will step down from the iron ore pellet producer’s board after he was detained in France at the request of Ukrainian authorities.
Zhevago was held at a hotel in the luxury French ski resort Courchevel on Tuesday by French police, the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday in a statement on its website.
The “necessary package of documents for his extradition from France to Ukraine is being prepared,” the bureau said. Ukraine put him on the international wanted list in 2019.
Finance & Credit JSC, a lender owned by Zhevago, was declared insolvent by the central bank in 2015, and an investigation established that $113 million had been siphoned out and transferred to foreign companies he owned, according to the State Bureau of Investigations.
It caused “damage to the state and the interests of the bank’s depositors,” the bureau said. Two executives from Finance & Credit have been indicted.
Zhevago has denied any wrongdoing. He owns 50.3% of London-traded Ferrexpo.
(By Daryna Krasnolutska and Marthe Fourcade, with assistance from Julien Ponthus)
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