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Sistema's president hopes for dialogue with Rosneft on settlement agreement

According to Mikhail Shamolin AFK Sistema do not consider a negative result of the case with Rosneft
AFK Sistema's President Mikhail Shamolin Sergey Bobylev/TASS
AFK Sistema's President Mikhail Shamolin
© Sergey Bobylev/TASS

MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. AFK Sistema's President Mikhail Shamolin hopes for a dialogue with Rosneft on the settlement agreement. This was his statement at the company's annual meeting on Saturday.

"As for the settlement agreement (with Rosneft): I hope we shall begin a dialogue," he said. "We do not consider a negative (result of the case with Rosneft), the positive scenario is: we should return to the earlier level (of shares' price) and hope for further growth."

Sistema’s representative told TASS on Thursday the holding had applied to the oil major Rosneft offering an out-of-court settlement to the dispute.

"The company has applied to Rosneft offering an efficient mechanism to solve the dispute out of court," Sistema’s representative said, refusing to provide details.

In May, Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft submitted a revised claim to the Arbitration Court of Bashkortostan against the diversified investment holding Sistema and its subsidiary Sistema-Invest amounting to 170.6 bln rubles ($3 bln), According to the materials of the Moscow Arbitration Court, which initially received Rosneft’s claim, the defendants (Sistema and Sistema-Invest) owned more than 73% of Bashneft shares between 2010 and 2014, and reorganized the company, following which Bashneft lost 49.41% of Sistema-Invest shares. Also, a 16.8% stake in Bashneft was repurchased from minority shareholders at the expense of the issuer with their subsequent repayment. Plaintiffs demanded compensation for losses incurred by the main companies - Sistema and Sistema-Invest - caused by their fault to the subsidiary company - Bashneft.

Sistema believes the claims of the plaintiffs are unlawful and unreasonable, saying that all corporate actions mentioned in the claim were executed in accordance with the law and the best practices of corporate management in the aims of business expansion and Bashneft cost increase.

In 2005-2014, Bashneft was part of Vladimir Evtushenkov’s Sistema, and later was returned to the state ownership.

In 2016, Rosneft acquired 50.1% of Bashneft's shares for 329.7 bln rubles ($5.7 bln). Later, after Rosneft made an offer to minority shareholders, it began to control 57.7% of Bashneft's authorized capital.