Antitrust wants Lukoil $1.45 bln sale of diamond firm voided

MOSCOW, May 25 (PRIME) -- The Federal Antimonopoly Service has filed a suit to an Arkhangelsk Region court asking it to void a 2017 deal of oil major Lukoil selling diamond mining company AGD Diamonds to Otkritie Holding for U.S. $1.45 billion, the service said in a statement on Monday.

During a bailout of Otkritie Financial Corporation (FC) Bank, the central bank discovered a suspicious acquisition by Otkritie Holding of 100% in AGD Diamonds, formerly known as Arkhangelskgeoldobycha, from Lukoil through subsidiary Otkritie Promyshlennye Investitsii (Otkritie Industrial Investments), as the sum of the deal was tow times higher than the value of the diamond producer, the service said.

After analyzing the deal, the service discovered violation of the law on foreign investment in the companies that are of strategic importance for the country’s sewcurity. Otkritie Holding also did not provide data that some of its beneficiaries have citizenships of other countries to the government’s commission for foreign investment control, which meant that foreigners gained control over a strategic asset.

AGD Diamonds produces diamonds at the Grib deposit in the Arkhangelsk Region. The company launched an ore mining and processing plant at the field in June 2014.

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