Rosatom affiliate files motion against Navalny to buy out Quadra's frozen stock
MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) - A routine corporate procedure of a mandatory buyout of stock from minority shareholders, which an affiliate of the Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom is carrying out with regard to the regional power company Quadra Power Generation it earlier bought from Onexim Group, has stalled over a tiny stake of frozen shares, some of which are owned by opposition activist Alexei Navalny, thus prompting Quadra's majority shareholder to take the matter to court.
Rusatom Infrastructure Solutions (RIS, part of Rosatom) bought an 82.47% stake in Quadra from Mikhail Prokhorov's entities in February 2022. The parties did not disclose the value of the deal. Interfax's sources estimated it at about 26 billion rubles. In early March, RIS made a mandatory offer on buying out Quadra's stake, which remained valid until May 24. Based on the offer's results, RIS's stake in Quadra increased to 95.02%, hence surpassing the mark entitling a joint stock company, in line with Russian law, to mandatorily buy out the remaining stock from minority shareholders. RIS launched this procedure at the end of July. An ordinary share to be bought under the squeeze-out procedure was valued at 0.0131 rubles and a preferred share at 0.01025 rubles.
As follows from the database of arbitration procedures, RIS filed several motions against individuals with the Tula Regional Arbitration Court at the end of December. One of these individuals is Navalny, who is serving his prison term at a high-security penitentiary in Melekhovo in the Kovrov district of the Vladimir region. The Independent Registrar Company R.O.S.T joint stock company is also mentioned among the respondents.
The relevant records in the database do not provide any specific details. The RIS press service told Interfax the motions concern the compulsory buyout of Quadra's stock. RIS has currently acquired 99.99909% in Quadra's authorized capital, while the remaining 0.00091% of the shares remain frozen. The law stipulates that such securities can be disposed of after their freeze is lifted.
"To eliminate obstacles to RIS's legitimate right to mandatorily buy out Quadra's shares and have them unfrozen, relevant motions have been filed with the Tula Regional Arbitration Court," it said.
Quadra operates about 20 power plants and over 300 boiler rooms in 10 regions of Russia's Central Federal District. The company's previous name was TGK-4, and it was separated from RAO UES in the process of the Russian power generation industry's reform. Hence, the shareholders of RAO UES, which was liquidated in 2008, automatically became shareholders of TGK-4, as well as the other companies set up through the transformation of RAO UES assets.