Czech Republic’s Ministry of Finance’s Financial Analytical Office FAU has frozen the assets of Ostrava-based Vítkovice Steel, which is owned by supranational investment funds belonging to the countries of the former Soviet Union tracing back to Russia’s development bank VEB due to European Union sanctions against persons and entities from the Russian Federation and Belarus in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The company can continue to operate, run its business, pay employees and meet its business obligations to its partners, but it must not be sold or its shares transferred to another owner Local media had reported in Mach 2022 that Vítkovice Steel shareholder control can be traced back to Russia’s development bank VEB. However, this was denied by the company’s spokesperson, who said that the owners of Vítkovice Steel are businessmen from the states of the former USSR and not Russia.The management of Vítkovice Steel is surprised by the announcement made by the media. Vítkovice Steel spokeswoman Ms Jana Dronská told local media CTK that “In our opinion, there has been no freezing of the company's assets, nor are we aware that it is being prepared. The company produces, has enough orders and hopes that the situation will be explained and will not affect the company. FAU only informed the company in recent days that it had received an initiative to investigate the company and that it would not provide financial benefits to the owners as a precautionary measure. We have not been doing this for at least three years, because the company does not generate a net profit, and therefore this measure does not affect us in any negative way. The company's management is in contact with the FAU."Ms Dronská refused the information about the Russian owners. She said “5 Cypriot shareholders are entrepreneurs from the post-Soviet republics, not from Russia. Let's continue to confirm that the company does not have Russian owners, the company owns multinational investment funds.”Ostrava based Vítkovice Steel is a traditional European producer of rolled steel products. The company is the largest producer of steel sheets in the Czech Republic and the only producer of heavy plates &sheet piles. The company has almost 900 employees. The company is owned by multinational investment funds from the countries of the former Soviet Union. After the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the company deleted the name of its current Russian owner Evraz from its name. The current Chief Financial Officer and member of the Board of Directors, Mr Radek Strouhal, became the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors on 1 January this year. He replaced Mr Dmitri Shchuk who worked in the company for more thanAccording to the latest full-year results, Vítkovice Steel reduced their loss in 2020 to CZK 267 million (11.4 million). It was their best economic result in three years, in 2018 they were at a loss of CZK 1.68 billion. In the first three quarters of last year, the company achieved a net profit of CZK 25 million
Czech Republic’s Ministry of Finance’s Financial Analytical Office FAU has frozen the assets of Ostrava-based Vítkovice Steel, which is owned by supranational investment funds belonging to the countries of the former Soviet Union tracing back to Russia’s development bank VEB due to European Union sanctions against persons and entities from the Russian Federation and Belarus in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The company can continue to operate, run its business, pay employees and meet its business obligations to its partners, but it must not be sold or its shares transferred to another owner Local media had reported in Mach 2022 that Vítkovice Steel shareholder control can be traced back to Russia’s development bank VEB. However, this was denied by the company’s spokesperson, who said that the owners of Vítkovice Steel are businessmen from the states of the former USSR and not Russia.The management of Vítkovice Steel is surprised by the announcement made by the media. Vítkovice Steel spokeswoman Ms Jana Dronská told local media CTK that “In our opinion, there has been no freezing of the company's assets, nor are we aware that it is being prepared. The company produces, has enough orders and hopes that the situation will be explained and will not affect the company. FAU only informed the company in recent days that it had received an initiative to investigate the company and that it would not provide financial benefits to the owners as a precautionary measure. We have not been doing this for at least three years, because the company does not generate a net profit, and therefore this measure does not affect us in any negative way. The company's management is in contact with the FAU."Ms Dronská refused the information about the Russian owners. She said “5 Cypriot shareholders are entrepreneurs from the post-Soviet republics, not from Russia. Let's continue to confirm that the company does not have Russian owners, the company owns multinational investment funds.”Ostrava based Vítkovice Steel is a traditional European producer of rolled steel products. The company is the largest producer of steel sheets in the Czech Republic and the only producer of heavy plates &sheet piles. The company has almost 900 employees. The company is owned by multinational investment funds from the countries of the former Soviet Union. After the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the company deleted the name of its current Russian owner Evraz from its name. The current Chief Financial Officer and member of the Board of Directors, Mr Radek Strouhal, became the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors on 1 January this year. He replaced Mr Dmitri Shchuk who worked in the company for more thanAccording to the latest full-year results, Vítkovice Steel reduced their loss in 2020 to CZK 267 million (11.4 million). It was their best economic result in three years, in 2018 they were at a loss of CZK 1.68 billion. In the first three quarters of last year, the company achieved a net profit of CZK 25 million
