Russian court orders seizure of Deutsche Bank assets

The Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank was sued by a Russian gas company

Germany's Deutsche Bank had been due to provide guarantees for the construction of a gas processing plant which was to be operated by Gazprom.

A St. Petersburg court has ordered assets and accounts of Germany's Deutsche Bank in Russia be seized as part of a lawsuit filed by a Russian energy firm.

Deutsche Bank previously withdrew its guarantees for the construction of a gas processing plant in the wake of Western sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

What do we know about the gas processing plant project?

Deutsche Bank was a guarantor lender for the construction under the contract with the industrial firm Linde and Turkish construction company Renaissance Heavy Industries.

But after the US and the EU imposed sanctions on Russia , Deutsche Bank and others withdrew their guarantees. This prompted Linde to inform RusChemAlliance that it would halt the project.

The RusChemAlliance firm, which is 50% owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom, sued the German bank.

RusChemAlliance said it had paid advances to Linde for the plant to be built.

What did the court order?

The St. Petersburg arbitration court has ordered the seizure of up to €238.6 million ($259 million) in securities, real estate and bank accounts of Deutsche Bank, its Russian subsidiary and its technology hub.

The sum represents only part of the bank's assets in Russia.

"We will need to see how this claim is implemented by the Russian courts and assess the immediate operational impact in Russia," the bank said in response to the ruling.

Deutsche Bank also said that it considers itself fully protected under an existing compensation agreement.

In a separate lawsuit, the St. Petersburg court ordered the seizure of assets, accounts and property belonging to Italy's UniCredit bank. It also ordered that the bank's shares in two of its subsidiaries be seized.

UniCredit is the second-largest foreign bank active in Russia.

sdi/dj (Reuters, dpa, Interfax)

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