The court prohibited the payment of dividends to minority shareholders of the Solikamsk Magnesium Plant

The appellate instance overturned the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Perm Territory, which had previously denied the Federal Property Management Agency interim measures in the framework of the process regarding the fate of the shares of Solikamsk Magnesium Plant OJSC (SMZ). Let us remind you that the prosecutor’s office is seeking to confiscate securities from minority shareholders in favor of the state, since it considers the privatization of the plant in the 1990s illegal. Previously, the arbitration court satisfied the claim of the supervisory authority to seize more than 89% of the shares from the majority shareholders.

As part of a new lawsuit, in which more than 2.1 thousand people are defendants, the Federal Property Management Agency, brought in by a third party, demanded that they be prohibited from paying dividends totaling more than 187 million rubles. We are talking about payment based on the results of 2022. In the summer, the court of first instance refused to take interim measures. He motivated his position by the fact that the decision not to pay dividends can also be made by the general meeting of shareholders, where the majority of votes are controlled by government agencies. The Federal Property Management Agency appealed this judicial act.

The Seventeenth Arbitration Court of Appeal agreed with the applicant’s arguments. The resolution states that the actual subject of the dispute is the defendants’ right to own shares and receive dividends from them. Moreover, their payment if the claims are satisfied will cause damage to the Russian Federation. It is worth noting that SMZ previously reported the payment of dividends in the amount of 1.569 billion rubles. Judging by the report, the recipients were shareholders who owned the package claimed in favor of the state.

Dmitry Astakhov, Perm