Russian oligarchs lose $12 billion in a day due to US sanctions
The share prices of the largest Russian companies and the ruble exchange rate have plummeted due to US sanctions, Meduza news outlet reports.
Oleg Deripaska is among those to have suffered the greatest losses. The value of his companies crashed immediately after it was announced that they were under sanctions.
Rusal dropped by 50% on the Hong Kong Exchange and 25% on the Moscow Exchange. The company even issued a warning concerning possible technical default due to sanctions. Trades of En + notes in London halted after falling by more than 25%.
Overall, Forbes estimates that Deripaska had lost $1.6 billion by the evening of April 9, roughly one fifth of his net worth.
Vladimir Potanin, Deripaska’s partner in Nornickel, lost $1.3 billion, 8.2% of his net worth.
Viktor Vekselberg, another billionaire on the sanction list, lost $950 million. Vekselberg’s “Renova” is not traded on the open market, but it may also suffer from the ban on working with American companies.
Forbes notes that Suleyman Kerimov lost a hefty sum – $1.4 billion, roughly 20% of his net worth.
In one day, the wealthiest Russian businessmen according to the Forbes list collectively lost more than $12 billion.
Following Deripaska’s assets, the quotes on Russian companies and the ruble crashed. The RTS Index lost almost 10%, and the Moscow Exchange Index lost almost 7%. On April 9, the dollar ruble exchange rate approached 60 rubles to the dollar, and the euro crossed the 74 ruble mark for the first time since August 2016.