Russian gold producer Petropavlovsk (LON: POG) is the biggest faller on the Main Market after it provided an update on the situation with a subsidiary’s convertible bonds. The share price fell 13.4% to 1.2p and it is 93.7% down on the year so far.
There are still plenty of trades in the shares many of which are worth less than £500 pounds – three are worth less than £10 and one was worth 64p.
Petropavlovsk has guaranteed 8.255 guaranteed convertible bonds due 2024 issued by Petropavlovsk 2010 Ltd. There is $33m of principal outstanding.
A sum of $157,880 was payable on 27 June relating to a cash alternative election notice and $680,625 of interest was due to be paid on 3 July. This is due to sanctions.
The company has sent an updated notification of the events of default to the trustee of the convertible bonds. There have already been notifications of other defaults.
Petropavlovsk has operations in the Amur region in the far east of Russia. The operating mines are Pioneer, Malomir and Albyn. It graduated from AIM to the Main Market in 2009.
The external auditor appointed last September resigned at the beginning of July.
Petropavlovsk’s Moscow Stock Exchange quotation has been downgraded from level 1 to level 3, which means it satisfies only basic listing requirements. This means that pension funds are not allowed to buy the shares.