Jesus Christ.
Just one day after reports indicated Oleg Deripaska was taking a “fuck you first and ask questions later” approach to the U.S. sanctions that rocked the metals market, crushed the ruble, and sent Rusal and EN+ Group into a tailspin (costing Deripaska nearly $4 billion in personal wealth in the process), it now appears the story has changed.
EN+ (which owns 48% of Rusal) now says Deripaska has agreed cut his stake in the company to below 50% and has acquiesced to a proposal that calls for his resignation from the board.
The company is calling for an urgent reply to a formal request filed with the OFAC. As Bloomberg notes, “without an extension of authorization period for General License No. 13, the ability of the company to maintain GDR listing on LSE will be materially impacted.”
So here we go with the market rollercoaster, as Alcoa is hit:
And the ruble briefly extended it’s daily gain to 1.3%:
This comes hours after the CBR (on hold) said the scope for rate cuts has declined amid the sanctions-related weakness in the currency. Not everyone is convinced that’s going to be enough.
“This doesn’t alter our view on the ruble, and we stick to our long USDRUB position,” Morgan Stanley said in a note, adding that “holding the rate-cutting cycle [won’t] be enough to offset negative impact of less-supportive current account, FX purchases by the Finance Ministry [and] weak sentiment due to sanctions.”
As Natasha Doff reminds you, Friday’s bounce notwithstanding, this hasn’t been a good month for the currency:
