Vekselberg and Glasenberg

Zug-resident Viktor Vekselberg and the CEO of Glencore, Ivan Glasenberg, have both been affected, albeit in different ways, following president Trump’s decision last week to impose sanctions against Kremlin-linked companies and oligarchs.

As of Sunday, it was not quite clear what effect the sanctions would have on Swiss firms belonging to Vekselberg’s business empire, though the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs had indicated it would offer support.

Ulrich Steiner, a spokesman of the Lucerne-based Schmolz+Bickenbach steel company Vekselberg is involved with to the tune of 42.1%, said he, too, was unsure precisely what the sanctions would mean for the company, which employs just under 600 people in the USA. Neither was it known how Vekselberg’s Renova Group would be affected, though all its assets in the USA have been frozen and, as of last Friday, it is illegal for persons and companies in the United States to do business with any of the people or companies on Trump’s list. It is thought that, as Swiss subsidiaries are not named on the sanctions list, provisionally, they will not be affected to the same extent.

Both the Sulzer and Oerlikon companies belong to the Renova Group, the billionaire oligarch owning 63.4% of the former and 43% of the latter. Some 2,400 of Sulzer’s 15,000 staff work in the USA as do 2,000 for Oerlikon. Senior employees at the companies’ headquarters in Winterthur (in the canton of Zurich) and in Pfäffikon (in the canton of Schwyz) were busy on Saturday looking at what sanctions could mean for them.

While Vekselberg (main photograph) also owns 40.7% of the the Züblin Immobiliengesellschaft property business (which operates solely in Switzerland) through the Panama-based Lamesa Holding, this latter company is not included on the sanctions list.

As mentioned, when the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs was asked about what effects sanctions could have on Swiss firms linked to the persons and companies on Trump’s list, spokesman Fabian Maienfisch said that US sanctions were not legally applicable in Switzerland, but they could have knock-on effects and that the Secretariat would offer support to Swiss firms affected wherever possible, adding how these were invited to get in touch with the Secretariat.

It was also make known Switzerland was in touch with the appropriate authorities in the US over this matter, but the Secretariat declined to comment on individual persons or companies.

Vekselberg himself declined to comment on the matter on Saturday and there was no response to journalists’ request for comments at the Renova Group’s offices in Zurich and Moscow.

According to Forbes magazine, Vekselberg’s fortune amounts to $14 billion, the oligarch moving his place of residence from Zurich to Zug once the former banned flat-rate tax payments.

As for Ivan Glasenberg (second photograph), the Glencore company announced on Tuesday that its CEO would be resigning as a member of Rusal’s board with immediate effect.

Glencore had an 8.7% stake in Rusal, one of the largest aluminium-producing companies in the world and which was also included on Trump’s list. The company is controlled for the most part through Oleg Deripaska, who is also subject to US sanctions.