The U.S. Treasury Department indicated that Oleg Deripaska should reduce his 66% shareholding in En+ Group PLC to about 40% to keep his ownership and spare the company from U.S.-imposed sanctions, Bloomberg News reported May 30, citing sources.
The agency has not given a specific percentage to which the tycoon must reduce his stake, but a source told the news service that it had to be "meaningfully" below 50%.
Deripaska reportedly had been considering a plan to reduce his stake in En+, with the company buying back some of his shares. En+ is a 48% shareholder in United Co. Rusal PLC.
En+ and Rusal were added to a Treasury Department list of sanctioned companies for profiting from Russia's "malign activity around the globe" in April.
The Russian mining magnate had taken steps to distance himself from En+ and Rusal by resigning as nonexecutive director of both companies in May. Further, Rusal CEO Alexandra Bouriko and half of its board members tendered their resignation May 24, which resulted in a rise in Rusal's shares on the Moscow and Hong Kong exchanges.
The report also noted that En+ applied for an extension to avoid being delisted from the London Stock Exchange on June 1 and to appoint a majority of independent directors.
