Independent director Paul Ostling leaves Polymetal board of directors

MOSCOW. June 19 (Interfax) - Independent director Paul Ostling is resigning from the Board of Directors of goldmining company Polymetal International plc, the company said.

The decision is effective immediately.

"Paul's valuable contributions to the development of our Company have been greatly appreciated. We are sincerely grateful for his dedicated efforts and wealth of experience. We will initiate the search for a new candidate to fill the Board position in due course," Yevgeny Konovalenko, Senior Independent Director of Polymetal international plc, said in a press release posted on the company's website.

The United States in mid-May imposed blocking sanctions against JSC Polymetal, a Russian-registered legal entity that acts as a holding company for Polymetal's assets in Russia, among other matters. However, neither the parent company, Polymetal International plc registered in Jersey, nor its entities outside the Russian Federation were included in the sanctions list, meaning that Polymetal and its operations outside Russia are not subject to blocking sanctions, with the United States Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) devoting a separate clarification to the matter.

Following this, Polymetal CEO Vitaly Nesis and CFO Maxim Nazimok resigned from all executive positions in the sanctioned JSC Polymetal and its subsidiaries. Pavel Danilin, executive vice president for strategic development, left the company. Nesis and Nazimok will retain their current positions at the parent company and will focus on operations in Kazakhstan, as well as on the re-domiciliation of Polymetal to the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). Upon completion of the process, they will continue to work on a potential division of the group's assets by jurisdiction.