Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Raiffeisen may obtain compensation for losses in Russia through frozen assets in Austria.
The Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) cleared a major legal hurdle on the way to receiving compensation of 3,15 billion euros for losses it suffered as a result of court rulings in Russia. A Vienna court ordered the Russian company Rasperia Trading to pay the bank compensation. Bloomberg reports.
According to the court decision, RBI can pursue recovery of compensation from Rasperia’s assetsFrozen in Austria, which was previously linked to the Russian sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Specifically, this includes 28,5 million shares of construction company Strabag SE, dividends frozen since 2021, and also a cash payment related to a capital reduction of Strabag in March 2024.
In the next phase, the bank plans to petition the Austrian financial regulator to unfreeze these assets so it can collect the compensation due to it.
This could allow RBI to recover part of the funds lost due to court rulings in Russia, though not by a direct withdrawal of funds from the Russian market.
Earlier attempts by the bank to sell its Russian assets or swap them for Rasperia’s frozen assets were unsuccessful due to lack of necessary regulator approvals.
As part of the dispute in Austria, the bank sought damages in response to Russian court rulings obliging its Russian subsidiary to pay Rasperia compensation over a failed deal to acquire its stake in Strabag SE. The deal was canceled due to EU sanctions.
Russian courts ordered RBI’s subsidiary to pay Rasperia about 2 billion euros. In response, the Austrian banking group filed suit in Vienna seeking to recover about 3,15 billion euros from Rasperia using its frozen assets in Austria.
The mechanism that allows companies to claim compensation for losses caused by rulings of Russian courts is provided for by EU rules. It enables the collection of funds using assets frozen under the sanctions regime.
As a reminder, Raiffeisen Bank International JSC “Raiffeisenbank” has in recent years repeatedly made payments for Russia’s state defense orders. Journalists from the Schemes project confirmed this, analyzing the activities of one of the Russian military-industrial complex contractors—the company “Kvalitet,” a key supplier of lubricants for Russia’s defense industry and army.
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