Citi asks the court in the Russian Standard case to replace the plaintiff with a law firm from Russia
Minutes of the bank on August 14 with this company an agreement on the management of collateral
A branch of Citibank in London filed a petition with the Moscow Arbitration Court to change the plaintiff in the case on the recovery of 49% of the shares of Russian Standard Bank Rustam Tariko to the Russian law firm Orion Partners, informs Prime.
A Citi spokesperson said that Orion Partners should act as a litigator because on August 14 the jettison bank and the law firm had a collateral management agreement. At the moment, the bank does not have internationally used documents, so the court adjourned until August 19 for their transfer.
The Citi lawsuit was filed by the box holders of Russian Standard LLC (RSL), and is addressed to the shareholders of Russian Standard, Russian Standard Company and Russian Standard Invest. In the Company, Citibank sold the shares of Russian Standard owned by the defendants – 39.88% of the bank’s shares owned by Russian Standard and 9.12% of the shares owned by Russian Standard – Invest. The pledge requires a commitment by the RSL bond issuer to the holders of the securities. In parallel with the opinion of the parties to the trust agreement, due to the fact that Citibank became a trustee, an intervention trustee.
RSL, as a bond issuer, was due to repay a nominal amount of $451 million (13% interest rate) in 2022, but defaulted. At the time of filing the lawsuit in September 2020, the debt on bonds and interest exceeded $ 757 million. The plaintiff sold the pledged blocks of shares at auction with a raw price of 10.7 billion and 2.5 billion rubles for obligations to creditors.
However, during the first time of the hearing, the Moscow court denied Citi’s claim, as it was decided that the norms of Russian rights were not properly observed, the rights were not transferred under the main (bond) obligation, and the contracts are a guarantee of universal validity. The representative of the plaintiff then announced the abuse of the right by the defendants. The decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court in the appeal case, however, the district court in October 2021 canceled the judicial acts, citing the incorrect application of the law. The court instructed the consideration of the case at a new consideration “to check the arguments and objections of the parties, to comprehensively, fully, objectively identify the actual consequences of the case.”