UPDATE: Rosneft sees Sistema paying 136 bln rbl as amicable deal

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MOSCOW, Sep 11 (PRIME) -- Oil major Rosneft is ready for an amicable deal with multi-industry holding Sistema in their dispute over oil company Bashneft and will not raise its claims if Sistema redeems 136.3 billion rubles awarded by the Arbitration Court of the republic of Bashkortostan, Rosneft’s press secretary Mikhail Leontyev told PRIME on Monday.

“If Sistema wants to meet halfway we are ready to limit ourselves with the claims that were set and confirmed in the court…We have no capabilities or rights to make any other offers, and it is already a generous offer that implies that we won’t be making any new claims if the financial damage acknowledged by the court is redeemed,” he said.

Rosneft will raise the volume of claims otherwise, he added.

“We may have an offer to return 133 billion (rubles) of dividends (of Bashneft) in addition to that. But we are refraining from that. They illegally owned the shares and managed them, abused their rights, and illegally withdrew assets, so why then they accrued dividends to themselves? We are ready to allow them to use these…the dividends…to redeem the damage, among other things,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said in an interview with Rossiya 24 television channel that the company had not included all possible claims against Sistema in the case over as there was still an issue about 133 billion rubles of dividends of Bashneft received by Sistema.

“I should say that we did not file all the claims we had. It is enough to say that Sistema withdrew accumulated dividends from Bashneft when it was the owner of the company, and 133 billion rubles flew directly to Sistema,” he said.

Sistema has the money to redeem 136.3 billion rubles awarded to Rosneft by the court. Rosneft is ready to help Sistema to set up loans if it is necessary, and shareholders of Sistema may even redeem the debt with their own money, Sechin said.

Previously, President Vladimir Putin said he hopes the two companies will reach an amicable deal that will be beneficial to them and the Russian economy in general. Sechin said that Rosneft is ready to substantive talks with Sistema to search for a way to fulfill the court order without damaging the activity of the two companies and shares that are currently under arrest.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin cannot make any orders to any public companies, and he only expressed his point of view saying that it would be better if the companies reach an amicable deal.

Rosneft, the current owner of a controlling stake in oil company Bashneft, filed the suit against Sistema and its unit Sistema-Invest in May, seeking to recover a 170.6 billion ruble loss stemming from an alleged asset stripping at Bashneft by Sistema.

In June, the court issued an order to seize what it assessed as 185 billion rubles worth of assets of Sistema, including a 31.76% stake in mobile operator MTS, 100% in healthcare company Medsi, and 90.5% in Bashkir Power Grid Company, under the case. On August 23, the court ruled Sistema to pay 136.3 billion rubles to Rosneft and Bashneft, partially satisfying the suit.

(56.9966 rubles – U.S. $1)

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