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Report: Court freezes Vozrozhdenie stake in Promsvyazbank dispute with ex-owners

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Report: Court freezes Vozrozhdenie stake in Promsvyazbank dispute with ex-owners

Moscow Arbitration Court froze the assets of 10 offshore companies as part of a legal action initiated against them by PAO Promsvyazbank, Vedomosti reported Jan. 31.

The frozen assets include 38.1% of Vozrozhdenie Bank's common shares owned by four of the companies and over 60 billion Russian rubles held by the offshore firms in a Cyprus-based subsidiary of Promsvyazbank.

The defendants in the case include Promsvyaz Capital, controlled by Promsvyazbank's former owners Dmitry and Aleksey Ananiev, as well as other former shareholders of the lender and affiliated parties. Promsvyaz Capital and some of the other 10 companies also own stakes in Bank Vozrozhdenie. Promsvyazbank launched the legal proceedings to annul transactions with its shares and bonds that took place Dec. 14, 2017, the day before the lender was placed into provisional administration by the Russian central bank.

Promsvyazbank asked for the asset freeze as it is convinced that Promsvyaz Capital's beneficiary owners have been taking actions to sell Vozrozhdenie shares and transfer their financial assets abroad, which could make it impossible to ensure the satisfaction of Promsvyazbank's claims under the legal proceedings.

The freeze imposed on Vozrozhdenie shares could negatively affect the sale of the bank, Vedomosti noted. Following Promsvyazbank's bailout, the Ananiev brothers have to reduce their controlling stake in Vozrozhdenie to 10% or below by March 18, the newspaper said, while Kommersant reported earlier in January that the Russian central bank asked the two businessmen to sell their stake in the bank by mid-February.

Promsvyazbank was recently chosen by the Finance Ministry to become a lender specializing in servicing Russia's defense sector companies. The lender will be recapitalized during the first quarter of 2018 and transferred from the central bank into government ownership.

As of Jan. 31, US$1 was equivalent to 56.27 Russian rubles.