By John Helmer, Moscow There is a unique protection in the Ontario Business Corporations Act which may have Alexei Mordashov’s name written all over it. It’s called the oppression remedy. What this does is to allow minority shareholders to go to court to challenge the votes and decisions of majority or control shareholders in a […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, July 29th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow You don’t have to be Mr Plod to suspect that Noddy isn’t playing fair. More than half the Canadians who hold shares in High River Gold (HRG:CN), and who have resisted Alexei Mordashov’s buyout offers in the past, think he’s low-balling them again. Having driven up the share price to C$1.43, […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 24th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow What an enterprising lad! While Highland Gold, a London-listed public stockholding company, was looking in a forward direction, last Friday Roman Abramovich sold it a gold and silver prospect called Klen for the greater part of which he had paid $103,774 eighteen months earlier. Abramovich has now relieved Highland Gold of […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Not even the epitome of Canadian accountability and compliance, Dudley Do-Right, can remember a case when a man who has just defaulted on bank obligations of almost $75 million been allowed to sell promissory notes on his next adventure on the Toronto Stock Exchange. If Dudley is mistaken, and if Maxim […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 29th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow White Tiger Gold (WTG) was supposed to be the curtain-raiser on the Canadian stock market for Mikhail Prokhorov and Maxim Finsky, his childhood playmate, to sell shares in their collection of little known gold and other mineral prospects and mining licences in Russia. That collection is called Intergeo, and it cost […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, May 17th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow In the memoirs of the great courtesans, much fondness is expressed toward the size of their patrons’ pockets, but never the size (or lack of it) of their male members. Morgan Stanley lacks that kind of discretion. If you read the report issued on February 17 by the investment bank’s Moscow […]

by John Helmer - Monday, February 20th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow The future for Russian goldmining companies this year is bleak — even if the price of gold goes up. The major Russian goldminers are all expected to fail to reach their mine output targets, so they will be able to sell less gold at what are expected to be higher costs. […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Nathaniel Rothschild’s (centre) libel lawsuit against the Daily Mail and Associated Newspapers, due to commence on January 23 in the High Court in London, is now unravelling even more Russian oligarch secrets. As they crack open, so do suspicions of even more inexplicable involvement by Rothschild’s friend, Lord Peter Mandelson, than […]

by John Helmer - Friday, December 30th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow In American legend, Johnny Appleseed is the epitome of self-sacrificing kindness and charity to his fellow man. But he didn’t exactly give away his apple seeds. Johnny was a professional nurseryman – he gave seeds to friends and neighbours for planting in nurseries. The concessionaires and stakeholders then sold the trees […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 1st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Let’s hear it for Polymetal’s control shareholders – they have devised a scheme that appears to have fooled much of the Moscow market, but few in the London market. By moving Polymetal to the main board of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), they have camouflaged a free floating share bloc which […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
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