© Reuters
Vladimir Putin
Russia has seized the Russian assets of the German electricity company Uniper and the Finnish Fortum, Reuters reported, citing a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin.
According to the agency, from the document published on the website of the Kremlin, it is clear that Moscow has taken temporary control over the Russian division of “Uniper” (Uniper SE) and the Russian assets of the Finnish “Fortum” (Fortum Oyj).
Juniper, one of Germany’s major energy suppliers, was the largest importer of Russian gas in Europe before the war in Ukraine, but suffered record losses due to the suspension of Nord Stream imports and was nationalized by the government in Berlin to not bankrupt.
At the end of last year “Juniper” filed an arbitration claim against “Gazprom” for the losses incurred due to the behavior of the Russian state company and stopped buying Russian natural gas.
“Fortum” is the majority owner of “Juniper” and one of the largest electricity companies in Finland, whose business is focused on the Scandinavian region. “Fortum” is one of the largest foreign investors in Russian energy. In May last year, the company announced that it planned to leave the Russian market.
“Unfriendly Actions”
Russian state news agency TASS, which first reported the news, said the decree signed by the president allows Moscow to take temporary control of foreign assets if Russian assets abroad are confiscated.
“This decision was taken “in connection with the need to take urgent measures in response to unfriendly and contrary to international law actions of the United States and allied foreign countries and international organizations aimed at illegally depriving the Russian Federation of Russian legal entities . and natural persons of property rights and (or) limitation of their property rights in order to protect the national interests of the Russian Federation,” the decree, quoted by the Interfax news agency, said.
Temporary management is introduced in relation to movable and immovable property of foreign persons related to enemy states, securities, shares in the authorized capital, property rights located on the territory of Russia, the document says.
The temporary manager exercises the powers of the owner of the property, and the expenses related to the temporary management of the property are at the expense of the income from its use, which are specified in the document.
As noted in the decree, the Federal Agency for Property Management has been appointed as a temporary administrator, but another person may be appointed as the administrator by the President of the Russian Federation, including at the proposal of the Federal Agency for Property Management, the statement published late on Tuesday said. decree.
What is Moscow getting?
The list of assets subject to temporary management includes 83.73% of the shares of Unipro PJSC (owned by Germany’s Uniper), as well as 69.88% of the shares of Fortum PJSC owned by Fortum Russia BV and 28.35% of the shares owned by Fortum Holding BV
Fortum in Russia owns 98.23% in PJSC Fortum (formerly TGK-10) and about 30% in PJSC TGK-1 (main shareholder is Gazprom Energoholding). The company was also one of the largest wind energy investors in Russia. According to “Interfax”, the company was collecting requests to buy its assets and planned to make a decision before the beginning of July.
In turn, the German “Uniper” in its report on the results of 2022 announced that it had lost the opportunity to make decisions and manage its Russian unit Unipro. The sale of Unipro also remains in doubt, as the company has not yet received the necessary permission from the Russian president for this, writes “Interfax”.
2023-04-25 20:35:04
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