Polymetal shareholders approve re-domiciliation to Kazakhstan

MOSCOW. May 30 (Interfax) - Polymetal shareholders at an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday approved all resolutions proposed by the board of directors, including the company's re-domiciliation from Jersey to the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) in Kazakhstan, the gold and silver miner said.

A qualified majority of 75% of vote was needed to pass the resolution but 92% of participating shareholders voted in favor. Around 34% of shareholders took part.

The re-domiciliation is subject to the satisfaction of certain other conditions "and will proceed provided the Board can be assured at all times of continuing compliance with all applicable sanctions," Polymetal said. "The company and the board continue to work with their legal advisers in order to be able to give that assurance," it said. Subject to continuing sanctions compliance and satisfaction of the remaining conditions, the re-domiciliation is expected to proceed as previously announced.

The United States in the middle of May imposed blocking sanctions against JSC Polymetal, the holding company for Polymetal's Russia-based assets. Neither its Jersey-registered parent company, Polymetal International plc, nor its entities outside the Russian Federation were included in the sanctions list. That is, Polymetal and its operations outside Russia, including assets in Kazakhstan, are not subject to blocking sanctions; the ban on transactions by entities from the United States does not apply to the company itself, its non-sanctioned subsidiaries or non-sanctioned affiliates. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) devoted a special FAQ section to this matter.

Polymetal is Russia's biggest silver miner and one of the biggest gold miners. It has operations in Russia's Magadan and Sverdlovsk regions, the Khabarovsk Territory, Yakutia, Chukotka, and in Kazakhstan. Polymetal's largest shareholder is ICT Group owned by Alexander Nesis and associates with around 24%