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Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International will book a provision in its fourth-quarter results after a Russian court ruled that its business in the country was liable for €2bn in damages over a legal battle with a company formerly owned by Oleg Deripaska.
The ruling relates to a complaint filed by Rasperia, a Russian investment company once held by the sanctioned oligarch, against Austrian construction company Strabag and its shareholders which include RBI’s affiliate in Lower Austria, following a failed asset swap.
In a statement on Monday evening, Vienna-based RBI said the Russian court had decided that Strabag and its “Austrian core shareholders” were liable to pay €2.04bn to Rasperia and that the verdict could be “enforced against [RBI’s Russian unit]’s assets”.
RBI said it would appeal against the verdict and also take legal action in Austria to mitigate damages by seeking enforcement against Rasperia there.
As a result, RBI said it would book a provision that would “reflect the amount awarded to Rasperia by the court minus the expected proceeds from enforcement of legal recourse against Rasperia’s assets in Austria”.
A person familiar with the matter said the size of the provision was still being evaluated by RBI. The bank is set to publish its fourth-quarter results on February 4.
The ruling represents yet another headache for RBI, which has come under increasing pressure from regulators and foreign governments to leave Russia, where it has continued to operate following President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
However, almost three years on from the attack, the Austrian lender remains the western bank with the largest presence in Russia.
Last year, the European Central Bank ordered RBI and other European banks still operating in Russia to accelerate efforts to wind down their businesses there if they were unable to sell them.
Rasperia’s lawsuit was filed in August after the company tried to swap its large stake in Strabag with RBI in return for control of RBI’s Russian subsidiary.
However, the transaction was abandoned last May following pressure from the US government. Rasperia continues to be associated with Deripaska, according to western security officials.
Deripaska was one of the first oligarchs close to Putin to be hit with punitive economic measures in Europe in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
RBI has shrunk its lending activity in Russia since the invasion but has raked in profits from its Russian division as rivals have pulled out. However, this money is trapped inside the country under Kremlin legislation and a sale of the unit will require presidential approval.
