Russia

Petropavlovsk PLC suffered a blow Tuesday when an investment vehicle representing a sizable number of the Russia-focused gold miner’s shareholders said it would vote against the company’s financing package, which is aimed at staving off the threat of bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Sapinda Holdings B.V. told the U.K.-listed miner that shareholders representing 10.7% of Petropavlovsk’s equity intend to vote against the company’s restructuring proposal after concluding that it unfairly favors bondholders over shareholders.

Elvira S. Nabiullina, the governor of Russia’s central bank, was deep into a speech about her new currency policy when it became clear nobody was paying attention. Her audience, chief Russia economists from a dozen or so foreign banks, were looking down at their laps to nervously check their smartphones. The ruble, which had been slowly slipping after a predawn interest rate increase by the central bank, had just plunged 19 percent.

The co-founder of Russian-owned broker Alpari applied a year ago to wind up the parent company of its retail FX brokerage Alpari UK, fearing long before the company's collapse from trading losses last week that it "was doomed". Andrey Dashin, whose website lists him as "the Chairman of the Board of Directors and co-owner of the Alpari brand", said he lodged a winding-up petition for Alpari UK parent company Alpari Group Limited with a Cypriot court on Jan. 28, 2014.

Russia’s economy will shrink by close to 5 per cent this year, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development forecast, while average growth for eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union will fall into negative territory for the first time since 2009, the Financial Times reported. The development bank for the former Communist bloc said plunging oil prices and western sanctions would lead to a contraction in the Russia’s economy of 4.8 per cent this year, compared with a forecast drop of 0.2 per cent in September.

The Russian central bank’s net currency interventions in 2014 amounted to $76.13 billion and €5.41 billion, Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing central bank data, the Irish Times reported. Interventions in the month of December amounted to $11.9 billion. The bank intervened heavily last year as the rouble slumped because of international tensions over the Ukraine crisis and plummeting prices for oil, Russia’s main export. The Russian rouble opened more than 2 per cent lower against the dollar on Monday, dragged down by flagging oil prices.

Russia has moved to support a number of large companies and banks as it tries to prop up a struggling economy and a banking sector battered by the rouble’s jitters, the Financial Times reported. On Wednesday, the government said it would support Yamal LNG, the Arctic gas project of Novatek, with Rbs150bn. Separately Gazprombank, the country’s third-largest lender, said the government had bought Rbs39.95bn in preferred shares, using money from a subordinated deposit the bank had returned to the National Wealth Fund.

Russia’s economy contracted for the first time in more than five years in November, taking a step toward a full-scale recession next year, data from the economy ministry showed Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. After an optimistic start to the year, when Russia hosted the Winter Olympic Games and enjoyed high oil prices, the world’s largest country by area later stumbled over Western sanctions, massive capital outflows and a sudden drop in oil prices. Now the economy is widely seen contracting next year for the first time since the global financial crisis.

Foreign banks have fled Russia in dramatic fashion in 2014, cutting back their exposure to the country well ahead of the latest escalation of the rouble crisis, the Financial Times reported. Overall syndicated loan volumes this year collapsed to just 14 per cent of the 2013 total, as western lenders retrenched from a market that looked increasingly risky as the year progressed. Foreign banks are expected to continue retreating next year, putting further pressure on Russia’s already fragile economy.

Seeking to calm growing fears of an economic meltdown, the Russian government on Wednesday introduced a package of measures to reduce pressures on banks and urged the public to stay calm, the International New York Times reported. It seemed to work, at least temporarily. By Wednesday evening, amid indications of a government intervention in the currency markets, the ruble had recovered more than 11 percent of the previous day’s losses. Prime Minister Dmitri A.

The battered ruble plunged to a record low against the dollar again Tuesday, as investors grew convinced that the Russian central bank’s surprise move overnight to jack up interest rates to 17% wouldn’t be enough to alleviate the pressure on the currency from falling oil prices and western sanctions, The Wall Street Journal reported. By early afternoon in Moscow, the ruble dropped sharply, reaching 80 to the dollar, a record low and a 15% decline from opening levels when it rallied briefly. At 4:30 p.m. local time, the dollar was trading around 73 rubles.