Sberbank appeals against ruling in 14 bln rbl suit against Sukhoi

MOSCOW, May 8 (PRIME) -- Russia’s top bank Sberbank has filed an appeal against a decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court to void 2013–2014 deliverable currency option deals, under which state-owned aircraft producer Sukhoi was to pay about 13.5 billion rubles, as seen by PRIME on Wednesday in materials of the register of arbitration proceedings.

Sberbank and Sukhoi signed five deals before the 2014 devaluation of the ruble with a condition that Sukhoi was to sell U.S. $248.4 million at 28.30 rubles per U.S. dollar if the ruble falls below 40.25. Other conditions of the deals encompassed a write-off of 13.5 billion rubles from accounts of Sukhoi before 2018.

But Prosecutor’s Office of Moscow filed a suit to the Moscow Arbitration Court on behalf of Russia and the Federal State Property Management Agency asking the court to void the deals, and it sided with the claimant on March 15, 2019.

The bank previously filed a similar suit against oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, which suffered a 66.5 billion ruble loss on similar deals trying to hedge against the U.S. dollar’s devaluation in 2014. The Moscow Arbitration Court sided with Transneft, but the court of appeal cancelled the decision and supported Sberbank. In 2018, the bank and Transneft reached an amicable deal, with Sberbank CEO German Gref saying that it was a non-monetary deal.

(65.2166 rubles – U.S. $1)

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