Ferrexpo remains loss-making after ‘exceptionally difficult’ half-year

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Stricken iron ore miner Ferrexpo has revealed it remained heavily loss-making after an “exceptionally difficult” start to the year just days after securing investor backing for a 100 million US dollar (£76 million) emergency fundraising.

The group reported pre-tax losses of 11 million dollars (£8.3 million) for the six months to June 30, down from mammoth losses of 186.9 million dollars (£141.3 million) a year earlier, but saw its revenues more than halve to 196.4 million dollars (£148.5 million).

The results come after it won support for the vital investor cash-call on Monday, allowing it to fund daily operations and prevent it running out of cash at the end of October.

London-listed Ferrexpo saw the trading resume in its shares earlier in the month following a four-month suspension after it published long delayed annual results.

The firm has had sanctions placed on it by Ukraine’s government after being caught up in a battle between Ukraine and the firm’s largest shareholder and billionaire founder Kostyantyn Zhevago.

This has seen VAT refunds due to Ferrexpo withheld by Ukraine’s tax authorities since March, which has left Ferrexpo rapidly running out of cash.

Its cash position shrunk to around 30 million dollars (£22.7 million) at the end of June, down from 58 million dollars (£43.9 million) at the end of last year.

Interim executive chairman Lucio Genovese said: “The first six months of 2026 have been another exceptionally difficult period for Ferrexpo, during which the business and its people demonstrated a continued ability to adapt and respond to a series of operational, financial and legal challenges that were outside its control.

“The year began with waves of intensive attacks on Ukraine’s electricity generation and transmission infrastructure, which forced us to temporarily suspend operations.

“Following some improvements in the availability and price of electricity, we were able to restart limited production by bringing one of the group’s four pellet lines back online.”

He said the fundraise had “materially strengthened the group’s liquidity position, providing additional financial resilience and greater flexibility to manage the continuing operational and financial pressures facing the business”.

But he warned: “It does not however remove the underlying challenges as a result of the continued withholding of VAT refunds, the war in Ukraine, constraints on logistics and energy infrastructure, and the need to maintain disciplined management of cash and working capital”.

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