LONDON (Reuters) - Russian steelmaker Evraz said on Friday that 10 members of its board had quit following the British sanction of largest shareholder Roman Abramovich and the suspension of its shares, with only the chief executive remaining.
Britain froze the assets and imposed a travel ban on the Russian owner of Chelsea soccer club on Thursday along with six other senior Russians because of their links to President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.
Among other reasons for sanctioning Abramovich, Britain said he had destabilised Ukraine through his "effective control" of Evraz which, it said, may have supplied steel to the Russian military which may have been used in the production of tanks.
Evraz said at the time that it did not believe Abramovich had effective control of the company because he did not control more than 50% of the shares and had no right to appoint or remove a majority of the board.
Abramovich has a 28.6% stake, according to the company.
It also said it only supplied long steel to the infrastructure and construction sectors. It said as a result it did not consider that the UK financial sanctions would apply to the company.
On Friday it said that 10 of the 11 board members had resigned, with chief executive Aleksey Ivanov continuing as a director. It said it was waiting for further clarifications from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation.
"Evraz is deeply concerned and saddened by the Ukraine-Russia conflict and hopes that a peaceful resolution will be found soon," it said in a statement to the stock exchange.