Arthur Zurabyan, ART DE LEX, commented on the Amsterdam district court decision requiring Rosneft to pay compensation to Yukos International
The Amsterdam district court recognized the claim of Yukos International UK BV against Rosneft for losses it sustained because of its frozen accounts. Another trial will determine the amount of the losses, but Yukos claims losses of USD 333 million. According to the head of Yukos, Bruce Misamor, “The decision is another milestone in the process to reimburse Yukos for the illegal appropriation of assets.” The reimbursement will benefit more than 55,000 shareholders of Yukos. The representative of Rosneft did not comment on the case.
In 2005, Rosneft, which purchased Youkos’s debts for USD 450 million, and Moravel, a subsidiary of Group Menatep that had been a division of Yukos, claimed a portion of the amount from the sale of Yukos’s foreign assets, specifically the Mazeikiu refinery, in Lithuania, and the Transpetrol pipeline, in Slovakia.
In August 2006, the Dutch court sustained the Rosneft and Moravel claim and blocked proceeds from the sale in 2008, at the request of Rosneft and its subsidiary, Promneftstroy. Moravel received about USD 0.9 million, but Rosneft received nothing because the Amsterdam court decided that the company had recovered its debt resulting from the Yukos bankruptcy.
The restrictions ended in January 2011, when the Supreme Court of the Netherlands decided that Yukos was the rightful owner of USD 1.2 billion. Rosneft believed that the court order freezing the assets had been fair and that Yukos had suffered no damages as a result of its funds being placed in an interest-bearing account in a bank Yukos had selected.
The hearing took place on 9 January 2014, and Yukos changed its claims, shifting all responsibility to Rosneft.
The district court of Amsterdam admitted yesterday that Rosneft and Promneftstroy had no right to block Yukos’s accounts and that Yukos had sustained a loss equal to the difference between the interest rates of Fortis Bank and the profits the firm could have realized. Estimates of Yukos’s losses are at USD 50 to 333 billion.
“Rosneft may now appeal in the Court of Amsterdam during next three months,” stated the head of International Arbitration Practice of the ART DE LEX Law Firm, Arthur Zurabyan. “The hearing may last about one and a half years, and with new material in case, the proceedings may take even longer. The amount of reimbursement will depend on the court’s approach. The improper use of another’s money or creating obstacles to prevent someone from using their funds entails the payment of a reasonable amount of reimbursement and no more,” according to Zurabyan.
Yukos Capital now is attempting to recover more than RUB 7 billion from Tomskneft and USD 185.9 billion from Samaraneftegas. Both companies are Rosneft subsidiaries. In 2010, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands decided that Rosneft was to pay RUB 13 billion to Yukos Capital against the debt of Yuganskneftgaz.
