Prosecutor General's Office decides not to amend claims against AFK Sistema at Moscow Arbitration Court
MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) - A Russian Prosecutor General's Office representative at the Moscow Arbitration Court has confirmed its claims in a lawsuit on the re-nationalization of Bashneft shares.
Speaking at the court on Thursday, a Prosecutor General's Office representative confirmed that the office was asking the court to recover only Bashneft's shares in favor of the state.
The office has not filed any petitions on amending the claims.
A Prosecutor General's Office said at a hearing on October 23 that the office had received a statement from the Russian Investigative Committee on amending the claims, and the office subsequently asked the court to defer the hearing to analyze the statement.
The Investigative Committee had previously sought to become a party in the proceedings at the Moscow Arbitration Court and recover 190 billion rubles from AFK Sistema and Sistema-Invest.
Bashneft belongs to AFK Sistema , and Russian law enforcement agencies are seeking to return the oil company's shares to the state through the courts.
The privatization of the BashTEK companies and subsequent sale of these assets to Sistema are the subject of several criminal cases and lawsuits. In particular, charges have been filed against ex-Bashneft head Ural Rakhimov, businessman Levon Airapetian, and AFK Sistema principal owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
Rakhimov has been placed on the international wanted list, Airapetian was arrested in July, and Yevtushenkov was put under house arrest on September 16.
Sistema bought the BashTEK shares through funds thought to be close to the then leader of Bashkortostan, Murtaza Rakhimov, and his son Ural Rakhimov. Sistema built a vertically integrated company with BashTEK's assets on the basis of Bashneft within several years, and its production, financial performance, capitalization, and dividends grew rapidly. Yevtushenkov said on several occasions that he was not planning to dispose of the oil business and in fact expected Bashneft to grow further.
However, rumors about Bashneft's resale have regularly circulated on the market, and a year ago the media reported that Rosneft was eying Bashneft. Sistema started preparing Bashneft for an SPO, among the reasons being the desire to protect it from a hostile takeover. Bashneft was ready for the procedure in summer 2014 but, after encountering court problems, announced its postponement.
