Russian court turns down Rosneft’s 107 bln rbl case vs Sistema

MOSCOW, May 10 (PRIME) -- The Moscow Arbitration Court has returned without consideration a 106.6 billion ruble lawsuit by oil major Rosneft and its affiliate Bashneft against multi-industry holding Sistema, according to documents seen by PRIME on Wednesday.

The suit was filed earlier in May as Rosneft sought to recover the alleged loss from Sistema and its unit Sistema-Invest. Rosneft’s press secretary Mikhail Leontyev said then that the company believes that Sistema’s actions in 2009–2014, when it owned a controlling stake in Bashneft, were aimed at asset stripping and led to a reduction of assets.

Sistema said later in a statement that it sees the claims as illegal and ungrounded.

Leontyev said the company sees this court decision as a technical one and is waiting for an answer from the court of Ufa, where it had sent an equal lawsuit against Sistema.

“We sent the case to the courts of Moscow and Ufa on purpose, with an aim to avoid possible troubles with the case jurisdiction. We are quite satisfied with the situation where the courts define the jurisdiction themselves. We are avoiding these troubles this way, this is just a legal practice,” Leontyev said.

A representative of Sistema said the company welcomes the court move. “We see this ruling as a lawful one. We think that the court ruling fully corresponds with the position of the corporation on this dispute announced earlier that the claimants’ demands are ungrounded and they contradict the norms of the substantive law and legal practices.”

(58.5382 rubles – U.S. $1)

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