MILAN – Russian trouble ahead for Unicredit. A St. Petersburg Commercial Court has seized, for now as a precautionary measure, assets, shares and property of the bank for the equivalent of 463 million euros. The decision, reported by local agencies, was taken at the request of the Ruskhimalyansa local company that produces liquefied natural gas (LNG) owned by the giant Gazprom. The dispute concerns the Russian network Unicredit Bank (79 commercial branches and 4,000 employees in the country) and its German parent company. The project that caused the parties to quarrel concerned the construction of a gas treatment and liquefaction plant in Ust-Luga, on the border with Estonia.
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According to a reconstruction which is confirmed, the damage claim had been presented against Unicredit (but also to other banks such as Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank) for not having honored their guarantees – technically, a “performance bond” – on a contract signed in 2021 by the Russians with the German company Linde. But shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, the contractor had notified, in May 2022, the suspension of the works due to the sanctions adopted by the EU, for which the guarantor banks had communicated that they did not intend to make the payments for fear of violating the ’embargo. Hence the legal dispute, and the decision of the St. Petersburg judges to take action against the bank based in Milan. In the evening the bank led by Andrea Orcel he has declared: “Unicredit has been informed of the recent developments in the litigation pending in the Russian court between Ruskhimalyans against Unicredit Gmbh and Unicredit Bank, called into question. The precautionary measure concerns only certain assets sufficient to satisfy the claims of the plaintiff in the event of victory, and therefore does not affect Unicredit Bank in its totality. The matter will be subject to further analysis and monitored carefully.” The banks involved could consider an appeal: also because the case could create an insidious precedent.
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The seizure, which also affects 100% of the shares of Unicredit Leasing And Unicredit Guarantorwould therefore not resemble the recent expropriation of the branch suffered by Ariston in Moscow. Days ago Unicredit announced that in the event of total default of Russian assets – or their expropriation – the group would lose 2.8 billionequal to 37 basis points of Cet 1 assets. In February 2022, at the start of the war, the Unicredit risk in Russia it was 7.4 billion. Also the Foreign Ministry follows the case, and Farnesina sources inform that the dispute will be addressed in the meeting called for Monday of the ‘Russia table’activated by Minister Antonio Tajani with more exposed companies and institutions.
