VTB might receive 10% of Otkritie holding for Rusenergo debt - paper
MOSCOW. Feb 2 (Interfax) - The Russian bank VTB might receive around 10% of shares in Otkritie Holding for debt owed by the fund Rusenergo, the Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported, citing a source close to Otkritie's shareholders.
Shares in the holding were pledged as collateral on a loan from VTB to Rusenergo that matured last year. A certain amount of shares were pledged irrespective of their cost. The source told Vedomosti that the terms of the loan stipulated that if the fund does not fulfill its obligations on the loan, then its shareholders must give VTB stake in Otkritie Holding.
The VTB group demanded that the fund's debt be paid, another source said. VTB is taking both stake in Otkritie Holding, as well as shares of energy companies purchased through the loan, the source said.
Otkritie Financial Corporation, which is now called Otkritie Holding, created the fund Otkritie UES Capital Partners Fund PLC, now Rusenergo, in 2008 to buy the shares of minority shareholders unhappy with Russian electricity reforms. The fund purchased a total of 5% of RAO UES, and after the company was dissolved in line with restructuring plans, this stake was converted into the shares of 23 energy companies. Shares were purchased largely with borrowed funds. Otkritie sold the fund in 2009. Control went to Xenon Capital Partners, which was created by Natalia Tsukanova, who was the head of the Russian division of American investment bank JPMorgan and a consultant on several RAO deals. The new owners renamed the fund Rusenergo Fund Limited.
Representatives from Otkritie and VTB declined to comment on why Otkritie's shareholders are paying the debt of a fund that no longer belongs to them.
VTB will set up a reserve for the entire amount of the Rusenergo Fund loan, Deputy CEO Herbert Moos told journalists in January following VTB Capital's business brunch in Davos.
"I expect that as of the end of the fourth quarter [of 2014] we will reserve it entirely. That is, roughly speaking, this will be the loan total less the value of collateral," Moos said, adding that the bank would use the collateral's market value, not a model valuation.
VTB filed a lawsuit against Rusenergo Fund Limited in Moscow arbitration court in October 2014 seeking 64.3 billion rubles.
