Raiffeisenbank shares placed under collateral due to Strabag deal collapse
Today, September 5, the Arbitration Court of the Kaliningrad Region issued a decision to arrest a block of shares of Raiffeisenbank (a systemically important bank, 12th in terms of assets and the largest foreign bank in the Russian Federation) as collateral for a claim filed by MKAO Rasperia Trading Limited on August 19. This announced Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), which is the parent structure of the Russian bank.
According to the data of the electronic justice system, on August 19, 2024, Rasperia Trading Limited filed a claim for about 195 billion rubles. The claim was filed against a number of defendants, including the construction company Strabag SE and the Russian Raiffeisenbank. All of them were participants in the previously announced but cancelled deal. In addition to them, eight more persons are among the defendants, and the Bank of Russia was brought in as a third party.
It follows from the court's ruling that the claim was filed "on collection" and "enforcement of collection". At the same time, the plaintiff filed a motion to consider the case in closed mode. The court card index data show that on September 3, the plaintiff filed an application for securing the claim, on September 4, the judicial act was adopted at a closed court hearing, and on September 5, two notifications of writs of execution appeared.
In December 2023, the RBI Group reportedthat Raiffeisenbank would buy 28.5 million shares of Strabag SE from MKAO Rasperia Trading Limited. The amount of the proposed deal for the acquisition of a 27.78% stake in the company was to be €1.51 billion (about 150 billion rubles). Then, after the acquisition of the stake, it was planned to transfer them from the Russian bank to the parent Austrian structure in the form of dividends.
In April 2024, the RBI group said it had “thoroughly reviewed” the deal for compliance with sanctions regulations. However, according to Strabag, Rasperia Trading Limited was sold JSC Iliadis, which “requires extensive checks.” “The new ownership structure of Rasperia should provide RBI with confidence that no sanctioned persons or entities will directly or indirectly benefit from RBI’s acquisition of shares in Strabag SE, or from any related payments for these shares,” the Austrian side stated.
However, in early May 2024, Raiffeisenbank's parent structure reportedwhich abandoned plans to buy a stake in Strabag SE "as a precaution." As noted, the group was unable to obtain the necessary confirmation from the authorities to proceed with the deal. At the same time, the construction company Strabag noted that Rasperia is no longer controlled by Oleg Deripaska, and the share package owned by Rasperia (24.1%) remains frozen in accordance with the EU sanctions regulations.
May 14 MCAO "Rasperia Trading Limited" and JSC "Iliadis" were included on the US sanctions list, and then the EU.
