Polyus board decides against keeping London GDR, ADR listings

Russian gold producer Polyus on Thursday said its board had decided against maintaining its depositary receipt listings on the London Stock Exchange, in part due to US and UK blocking sanctions against the company.

Washington last month included Polyus and Polymetal’s Russian business – the largest gold producers in Russia – on its list of sanctions targets, aiming to punish Russia for the conflict in Ukraine.

Polyus said that maintaining its depositary receipt programs was no longer reasonable, referring to its Global Depositary Receipts (GDR) and American Depositary Receipts (ADR).

“The company also notified The Bank of New York Mellon, the depositary for the DR programs, of the termination,” Polyus said in a statement, expecting that BNYM would circulate a notice of termination to the DR holders, setting out the termination date.

Polyus said it encouraged DR holders to contact BNYM directly.

(By Alexander Marrow; Editing by Jason Neely and David Evans)