All news

Bashkortostan arbitration court postpones hearing of Rosneft, Sistema dispute

The hearing is expected to be held on April 3

UFA, January 12. /TASS/. The arbitration court of Bashkortostan granted petitions of Rosneft and Bashneft to postpone hearing of the claim against Sistema and Sistema-Invest on recovery of 131.6 bln rubles ($2.3 bln) of Bashneft dividends received in 2009 and 2014, TASS reports from the courtroom on Friday.

"Considering the petition of the parties, the court session is appointed to 10.30 am (08.30 am Moscow time), April 3," the judge said.

Postponement of the session is related to the settlement made between the parties in late 2017, a Bashneft representative said. "We have a petition to postpone the dispute consideration until a date after March 30, that is, after respondents perform their obligations under the settlement," he said.

Pursuant to the settlement, Sistema acting as a respondent in the Bashneft restructuring case will pay 100 bln rubles ($1.8 bln) to the Bashkir oil company in three tranches by March 30, 2018. Claimants asked the court to appoint the hearing exactly after this case. Respondents upheld the petition.

Rosneft agreed on reducing the amount of claims to Sistema and Sistema-Invest to 100 bln rubles ($2.3 bln), as it received information about Sistema’s possible bankruptcy, if the full amount were recovered, Rosneft Spokesman Mikhail Leontyev told TASS earlier.

TASS reported earlier that Sistema was going to raise funds to compensate Bashneft’s losses with the assistance of Sberbank and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which since November 29, 2017, has been an intermediary in the dispute between the companies.

In August 2017, the Bashkortostan Arbitration Court partially satisfied Rosneft’s claim against Sistema, having decided in favor of recovering 136.3 bln rubles ($2.4 bln) from the investment giant. However, the parties appealed. Rosneft insisted on full satisfaction of its claims at 170.6 bln rubles ($3 bln). Such losses, according to Rosneft, were due to the reorganization of Bashneft’s assets by Sistema in 2014.

The Arbitration Court of Bashkortostan approved the settlement deal and closed the proceedings on December 26, 2017.