Ukrainian strikes send Ozon shares plunging 27% after warehouse attacks

Ozon shares fell as much as 27% to 2,112.5 rubles ($25.1) apiece, their lowest level since August 2023, The Moscow Times reported. Within minutes, the company lost 185 billion rubles ($2.2 billion) in market capitalization. The exchange then suspended trading and moved the stock into discrete auction mode.

Ozon has lost 47% of its value since the start of the year, with its market capitalization down by 376 billion rubles ($4.5 billion).

Ozon said six of its warehouses were affected by drone strikes over the past three days. Drones attacked facilities in Samara and Orenburg over the weekend, while a logistics center in the settlement of Enem, a suburb of Krasnodar, and a facility in Makhachkala were hit overnight on Aug. 24. A fire broke out at the Makhachkala site, injuring several people.

Ozon warehouses in Adygeysk and Nevinnomyssk were evacuated because of the threat of drone attacks. The company said the facilities and the goods inside were not damaged.

Shares of billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s AFK Sistema fell 12.4% after Ozon’s plunge, dropping as low as 7.56 rubles ($0.09) apiece — their lowest level since 2014. Sistema owns a significant stake in Ozon, so the marketplace’s falling market capitalization automatically affects the value of Sistema’s assets, Freedom Global analyst Vladimir Chernov said.

Ozon’s share plunge, a new wave of attacks on logistics infrastructure and growing geopolitical risks dragged down the broader Russian market, Chernov said. The Moscow Exchange Index, which includes shares of Russia’s 46 largest companies, fell 2.5% to 2,081 points. PSB analysts said a new wave of stock-market declines could push shares to new lows for the year.

BCS analyst Andrey Sharov did not rule out Ozon suspending dividend payments. He said it remains unclear how much damage the attacks caused to the company’s operations.

Wildberries, whose turnover is 1.5 times Ozon’s, has already suffered direct losses of several hundred billion rubles, or several billion dollars, from the attacks. Including losses incurred by sellers and destroyed goods, total damage from attacks on the marketplace’s infrastructure could reach about 1 trillion rubles ($11.9 billion).

Large Ozon logistics facilities in three Russian regions were attacked overnight on Aug. 24. Before that, on Aug. 22, Ukrainian drones attacked an Ozon warehouse in Samara Oblast for the first time. Fire Point said the damaged hub is one of the largest fulfillment centers in the Volga region, covering about 135,000 square meters and with a capacity of more than 40 million items.

A video showing the moment a drone struck an Ozon logistics complex in Orenburg was published online on Aug. 23. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said that after strikes on 15 of Wildberries’ largest hubs, Ozon was next.

After Ukrainian strikes on Wildberries warehouses, goods worth the equivalent of the annual budget of a large Russian region were destroyed by fire.