Czech Evraz plant changes hands but retains links to the group
TriTrace Investigations found that Evraz’s former Czech plant retained trade and personnel links to the group after changing hands. We explain how we identified those links and the risks they pose for international business.
According to EUobserver, the Czech National Centre Against Organised Crime (NCOZ) and Financial Analytical Office (FAÚ) are examining who ultimately controls Czech Vanadium. The company was part of the Evraz group for years; Roman Abramovich remains one of Evraz’s largest shareholders.
TriTrace Investigations identified new supply chains in corporate and trade data that point to the plant’s continuing links to the group.
Why authorities are examining the company
Until February 2024, Czech Vanadium listed Roman Abramovich as an indirect beneficial owner in the Czech register. The company was owned by Evraz Group S.A. until early 2023, when it was transferred to the Russian firm Nikom.
After the plant was transferred in March 2024 to Abu Dhabi-based Metco LTD, later Metco Holding, the reference to Abramovich disappeared from the register. Despite this, EUobserver reported Datlab’s assessment that about €655,000 in Czech Vanadium’s distributed profits may have been paid to Abramovich.
An opaque holding company
The plant is owned by Metco Holding, whose owner and manager, Nikhil Skaria Kolekunnel, is a professional corporate services provider. He offers business-registration services and manages companies or assets on behalf of clients.
Metco already had links to Evraz. In 2022–2023, its director and shareholder was businessman Sergey Gushchin, whose company Rail Service formed a joint venture with Evraz to manufacture railway wheels.
Supply chains that remained in place
Transparency International’s Czech chapter reported that, after the ownership change, Czech Vanadium continued to receive vanadium pentoxide—a raw material used to produce speciality steels and alloys—via the Moscow-based company Elmash. Technical markings and cargo specifications pointed to the Evraz Vanadium Tula plant.
TriTrace found that the Czech company continued to receive products from Evraz’s Tula plant through an intermediary. Export declarations identified by TriTrace record 126 such deliveries through Elmash, worth €21.26 million.
Elmash had worked with Evraz before the Czech deliveries. TriTrace found declarations from 2022 to 2024 in which the company appeared as a contract holder or declarant in shipments from the Tula plant worth approximately $50 million.
Evraz employees at the intermediary
TriTrace identified several personnel links between Elmash and Evraz. From 2023 to 2025, the intermediary was headed by Eduard Prytkov, who at the time was Business Development Director at Evraz Steel Building, according to his LinkedIn profile and public sources.
At the end of 2025, Elmash came under the management of Vyacheslav Shudry. In spring 2026, he acquired a stake in the company alongside Daniela Grinko. Leaked records show that both worked for Evraz LLC: Grinko in 2022, and Shudry from 2024 until at least 2025.
Risks for business
TriTrace Investigations also identified other Russian intermediaries operating internationally that work with Evraz and are controlled by former employees of the holding.
Besides Czech Vanadium, Elmash conducted transactions with at least 13 counterparties from Türkiye, China, Hong Kong, India, the UAE and other countries. Dealings with possible Evraz partners carry heightened risks for businesses and require further checks.
