Sistema repays 40 bln rbl RDIF loan, Otkritie lends 15 bln rbl

MOSCOW, Jul 30 (PRIME) -- Multi-industry holding Sistema has repaid 40 billion rubles borrowed to settle a dispute with oil major Rosneft, its affiliate Bashneft and the republic of Bashkortostan before maturity, the lender, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said in a statement on Monday.

Sistema said in a statement that it borrowed 15 billion rubles from Otkritie Financial Corporation (FC) Bank until 2021 and used the funds and 5 billion rubles of its own money to redeem the debt to the RDIF and Gazprombank.

Previously, Rosneft, Bashneft and the republic of Bashkortostan filed a 170.6 billion ruble suit to charge Sistema and its affiliate Sistema-Invest for the losses allegedly caused to Bashneft in 2014 during its reorganization, when Sistema was the core owner. The court partially satisfied the suit in August 2017.

Rosneft and Bashneft filed a new, 131.6 billion ruble suit against Sistema in December 2017 seeking to recover dividends that Sistema received from Bashneft earlier.

The companies struck an amicable agreement of the 170.6 billion ruble suit, under which Sistema and its affiliate Sistema-invest were to pay 100 billion rubles to Rosneft’s affiliate Bashneft in several installments no later than on March 30, 2018. Rosneft asked the court to reject the 131.6 billion ruble dividend suit on March 12, 2018.

Sistema later signed an agreement to borrow 40 billion rubles from the RDIF and Gazprombank for 180 days to fulfill its obligations under the agreement secured by 52.009% shares in children good retailer Detsky Mir and 90.47% in Bashkir Power Grid Company. The company also opened a 105 billion ruble 5-year credit line with Russia’s top bank Sberbank secured by less than 30% of shares in mobile operator MTS.

(62.9726 rubles – U.S. $1)

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