UPDATE: Bashkortostan court registers Rosneft 107 bln rbl suit vs Sistema
(Adds comments in paragraphs 4–7)UFA/MOSCOW, May 15 (PRIME) -- The Arbitration Court of the republic of Bashkortostan has registered oil major Rosneft’s 106.6 billion ruble suit against multi-industry holding Sistema and scheduled hearings of the suit for June 6, according to the court’s documents seen by PRIME on Monday.The Moscow Arbitration Court registered the relevant suit of Rosneft and its unit Bashneft on May 2, but returned it without consideration on May 10, saying the suit was not in its jurisdiction.Rosneft seeks to recover an alleged loss from Sistema and its unit Sistema-Invest, which Rosneft believes were involved in asset stripping in Bashneft in 2009–2014, when they owned a controlling stake.Investment fund Prosperity Capital, a minority shareholder of Bashneft, is on the whole content with Sistema’s actions during its ownership of the controlling stake in Bashneft, although has a number of questions on a number of deals, but did not apply to court, the fund’s CEO Alexander Branis told PRIME.“There were a number of intragroup deals between Sistema and Bashneft, which raised questions at us, because we believed that they were completed on conditions that were more favorable for Sistema than for Bashneft. This concerned the purchase of Bashneft’s office building, the sale of transport assets, which Bashneft transferred in favor of Sistema, as well as reorganization of 2014… when the value of Bashneft, in our view, was more favorable for Sistema as the controlling shareholder, than for other shareholders of Bashneft,” Branis said.“Nevertheless, we still remain a shareholder of Bashneft. We believe the company is still investment attractive, and Sistema has on the whole reorganized business, increased Bashneft’s shareholder value, improved its management, reduced costs, raised dividends, boosted production, switched the company to a single share, etc,” he said.A spokesperson for Sistema said the company believed there were no grounds for claims. “Deals concluded during reorganization of Bashneft have never been contested in court. This is not surprising, the reorganization was held strictly in line with legislation, respected interests of all shareholders and led to growth of the company’s value,” the spokesperson said.(57.1640 rubles – U.S. $1)End15.05.2017 15:19 |
