December 11, 2017, 00:13 / Business Exclusively by subscription

Sistema demands 330.4 billion rubles from Rosneft

Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s company filed a counterclaim for “destruction of corporate value” by Vitaly Petlevoy Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s company demands to recover 330.4 billion rubles from Rosneft. / Maxim Stulov / Vedomosti

Last week, Rosneft , together with its subsidiary Bashneft, exchanged claims with Sistema. The first on December 7 demanded to recover the amounts received in 2009–2013. dividends from Bashneft for 131.6 billion rubles. Thus, together with the claim for damage to Bashneft, the total amount of the state-owned company’s claims increased to 302.2 billion rubles. On December 8, Sistema responded with a claim to the Moscow Arbitration Court against Rosneft and Bashneft for damages of 330.4 billion rubles.

“Rosneft and Bashneft have taken (and continue to do) deliberately dishonest actions with the aim of unjust enrichment and are destroying the corporate value of Sistema, driving the corporation to bankruptcy, causing damage to its shareholders and creditors,” AFK said. “The filing of the latest lawsuit by our opponents (for the return of dividends - Vedomosti) is outright blackmail,” adds the Sistema representative.

Rosneft considers the accusation absurd, a Rosneft representative told Interfax. He did not answer Vedomosti’s questions.

How Sistema calculated 330.4 billion rubles. damage, her representative declined to say. The capitalization of the corporation since the filing of the first claim in May 2017 has decreased by 2.2 times to 98.4 billion rubles, MTS has fallen in price by 12% to 491.6 billion rubles. In addition, according to the claim of Rosneft and Bashneft, 31.76% of MTS shares out of 50.03% owned by Sistema were arrested. According to them, the corporation did not receive 16.5 billion rubles. dividends, follows from Sistema documents. In total, in this case, the damage from the fall in share prices and lost dividends amounted to 161.2 billion rubles.

The amount of demands looks strange, says Pavel Gerasimov, partner of the Padva and Epstein bureau. Justify 330.4 billion rubles. damage will not be easy, he believes. According to Gerasimov, in its current form, based on Sistema’s statements, the claim is difficult to prove. The law provides that in case of an unfounded claim, compensation (not more than 1 million rubles) or damages from securing the claim (seizure of assets), as well as payment for the services of defense lawyers, must be recovered from the plaintiff, Gerasimov and BMS Law Firm partner Denis Frolov agree. Although the court can independently determine the amount of costs to be reimbursed, Frolov points out. It will be impossible to prove in a Russian court that the purpose of Rosneft and Bashneft’s claims against Sistema was to cause losses to the latter, even if Rosneft and Bashneft lose the appeal of the claim for 170.6 billion rubles, and the case claim for 131.6 billion rubles. will fall apart, Frolov is sure.

“Of course, a claim for 330 billion rubles. - This is an attempt to protect on the part of the “System” and an attempt to balance the balance of power within the framework of previous processes. In addition, this is an attempt to show investors that the company cares about shareholder value and minority shareholders,” says Vladimir Pleshakov, partner at the law firm Pleshakov, Ushkalov and Partners. But the grounds for the claim seem to Pleshakov to be far-fetched and difficult to prove.

At the same time, Sistema announced that it was ready for a speedy resolution of the conflict in the interests of all parties to the dispute. Most likely, filing a lawsuit is aimed at resolving the situation, says Gerasimov.