LSE suspends trade in PIK Group GDR over share freeze
MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax) - The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has temporarily suspending trading in the Global Depositary Receipts (GDR) of Russian property developer PIK Group over a Russian court order freezing a portion of PIK shares.
The suspension will remain in effect "pending clarification of the freezing order of certain shares underlying the depositary facility," the Financial Services Authority said on the LSE web site.
Arbitration court in Moscow ordered the freeze on 42,402,773 PIK shares (about 8.6% of charter capital) in a suit brought by Nomos Bank with Maritrade Investments Ltd, which owns the PIK shares.
The freeze applies to shares currently held by the GDR depositary, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas.
"PIK is neither a plaintiff nor a defendant in the dispute between Nomos-Bank and Maritrade Investments Limited, but has appeared in these legal proceedings as a third-party only. PIK continues to assess the potential effect of these proceedings on PIK's shares," PIK said in a disclosure on the LSE web site.
Maritrade Investment belongs to PIK co-owner Yury Zhukov. The court previously ruled in favor of Nomos Bank, ordering the company to surrender 12.5% of PIK shares that were collateral for a $262 million loan from the bank. Appeals court overturned the ruling, but superior court re-imposed the freeze on the shares, which had already been transferred away from the bank.
PIK Group raised $1.85 billion in an IPO in 2006. But the onset of the financial crisis saw the group's capitalization plummet.
Russian tycoon Suleiman Kerimov bought a 25% stake in the company from Zhukov and Kirill Pisarev in the spring of 2009 in exchange for help restructuring company debt. As of June 30, Kerimov's Nafta Moskva owned 38.3% of shares and Zhukov and Pisarev had a combined 22.5%.
RTS$#&: NMOS, PIKK