UPDATE4: Court orders Sistema to pay 136.3 bln rbl to Bashneft

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UFA, Aug 23 (PRIME) -- The Arbitration Court of the republic of Bashkortostan has ruled tha multi-industry holding Sistema must pay 136.3 billion rubles to Bashneft, only partially upholding a 170.6 billion ruble claim of oil major Rosneft, which owns Bashneft, according to information obtained by PRIME at the court session on Wednesday.

A Sistema spokesperson said his company will appeal against the decision.

The court earlier rejected Sistema’s request to delay hearing of the case.

Rosneft filed its suit in May, seeking to recover a loss stemming from an alleged asset stripping at Bashneft in 2009–2014 by Sistema.

Sistema said earlier that the hearing of the case should be delayed until the 18th Arbitration Court of Appeals considers the company’s appeal against a refusal to transfer the case to another arbitration court. Sistema said earlier it doubted that the court was unbiased.

The company also said it did not have enough time to study over 2,000 pages of documents that Rosneft provided at the last meeting.

A Rosneft representative said: “The statement that the defendants allegedly did not have enough time to study the materials of the court sounds ridiculous, especially taking into account that their interests are represented by a large group of professional highly-paid lawyers specially hired for this process.”

The court also rejected Sistema’s motion to disqualify judge Irina Nurislamova saying there were no grounds for it.

(59.0396 rubles – U.S. 1)

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