A court in Kaliningrad has ruled that the construction company Strabag, its Austrian core shareholders, and the 100% Russian subsidiary of the Raiffeisen Bank must pay 2.044 billion euros to the Russian co-owner Rasperia.
The background of the lawsuit is a dispute between the former Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska-controlled Strabag shareholder Rasperia (Rasperia Trading Limited) and Strabag and its shareholders. Since the EU sanctions against Deripaska in April 2022, the voting rights of Strabag shareholder Rasperia have been frozen at the Austrian construction company. As early as in December 2023, the Raiffeisen Bank had announced that it would buy 27.78% of Strabag shares from Rasperia for around 1.51 billion euros. However, in May 2024, Raiffeisen withdrew its purchase intention. The purpose was to transfer the blocked profits of the Russian subsidiary to Vienna.
After that, Rasperia sought to legally enforce the takeover of its Strabag shares by the Raiffeisen Bank in Russia. As a result, the Russian partners, allegedly at the request of the Austrian side, were subjected to US sanctions, a source close to the newspaper Vedomosti said. Since Rasperia had no opportunity to defend its rights in foreign courts, the company decided to turn to the arbitration court of the Kaliningrad region. This court decided in favor of Rasperia’s claim and rejected the request to reevaluate the market value, instead relying on the valuation of the claiming party.
Furthermore, the ownership rights of the Strabag shares held by Rasperia are to be transferred to the Raiffeisen Bank. The RBI stated in a statement on Monday evening that the decisions of Russian courts have no binding effect in Austria, making the transfer of shares unenforceable. The bank announced it would book a provision for the fourth quarter and plans to appeal the Kaliningrad court’s decision. RBI CEO Johann Strobl said, “The Raiffeisen Bank Russia has been unfairly drawn into the legal dispute between Strabag, its core shareholders, and Rasperia. It will appeal the wrongful verdict in Russia and, depending on the further developments, will take legal action against Rasperia in Russia and in Austria, together with the RBI in Austria, if necessary.