Russia confiscates the assets and property of two German banks

A Russian court has ordered the confiscation of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank’s assets, accounts, property and shares in Russia as part of a lawsuit involving the German banks, court documents said.
The banks were among the guarantor lenders under a contract to build a gas processing plant in Russia with Germany’s Linde, which was terminated due to Western sanctions.
The lawsuits were filed by St. Petersburg-based RusChemAlliance, a joint venture in which Russian gas giant Gazprom has a 50% stake., as RusChemAlliance manages the gas processing project.
The St. Petersburg arbitration court barred Deutsche Bank from disposing of its full 100% stake in the authorized capital of its Russian subsidiary as well as the Deutsche Bank Technology Center.
The court also decided to confiscate up to 238.6 million Euros ($259 million) worth of Deutsche Bank’s securities, real estate and bank accounts, as well as its Russian subsidiary and Deutsche Bank’s technology center.
Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt said it had already allocated about 260 million Euros to the case.
“We”ll need to see how Russian courts implement this claim and assess the immediate operational impact in Russia,” the bank said in a statement.
The court also ordered the confiscation of Commerzbank’s assets worth 93.7 million Euros ($101.85 million), as well as securities belonging to it and the bank’s building in central Moscow.
On Friday, the Russian court ordered the confiscation of UniCredit Bank’s assets, accounts and property, as well as shares in two of its subsidiaries, as part of a parallel lawsuit.