Ferrexpo delays results again over Blooming Land probe

Ferrexpo announced a further delay to its annual results to give more time for an independent review of the company’s donations to the charity Blooming Land.

The FTSE 250 miner said it would publish its 2018 results on or before 25 April. It had previously delayed publication from 20 March to 3 April.

An independent committee is examining the company’s donations to Blooming Land, a Ukrainian charity set up to coordinate Ferrexpo’s corporate and social responsibility programme.

The company, whose iron ore operations are in Ukraine, donated $9.5m to Blooming Land in the first half of 2018. Unexplained discrepancies were found in Blooming Land’s bank statements, prompting Ferrexpo’s board to conduct a review.

In an update, Ferrexpo said: “The work of the group's independent review committee (IRC) is ongoing. The IRC requires more time to be in a position to make appropriate disclosures in the 2018 financial statements.”

The company said it had made progress in getting explanations about the bank statement discrepancies and had received evidence for some possible discrepancies in the application of funds by Blooming Land, which provides medical and social services to communities in Ukraine.

“The IRC is undertaking further work to corroborate the above explanations and evidence.” Ferrexpo said. “The board cannot guarantee that the review will be complete by the publication of its full year results, or will complete favourably.”