Russian court orders Italy's UniCredit to pay $480 MM over aborted gas project
A Russian court has ordered Italian bank UniCredit to pay €448.2 MM ($479.44 MM) in a lawsuit over an aborted gas project brought by St. Petersburg-based RusChemAlliance, a joint venture 50% owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom.
UniCredit was one of the guarantor lenders under a contract for the construction of a gas processing plant in Russia with Germany's Linde—the contract was terminated due to Western sanctions against Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine.
"The claim is satisfied in full," the St. Petersburg Arbitration Court said in a filing. UniCredit declined to comment.
The court had ruled in mid-May that €462.7 MM in securities, real estate and accounts belonging to UniCredit, as well as 100% of shares in UniCredit Leasing and UniCredit Garant, be seized.
UniCredit Leasing and UniCredit Garant are subsidiaries of AO UniCredit Bank, the Italian group's Russian arm. UniCredit said earlier in May that the seizure affected only a fraction of the Russian unit's assets, not the entire subsidiary.
Following the asset seizure, UniCredit's Russian unit agreed with RusChemAlliance for UniCredit to pledge Russian OFZ treasury bond holdings with a market value of around 50 B roubles ($574 MM) instead.
When the gas project was halted, RusChemAlliance had made a €2-B advance payment on the €10-B contract, according to Britain's Supreme Court website.
UniCredit had issued part of the guarantee package in favor of RusChem on behalf of Linde.
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