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A St Petersburg court has seized €463mn worth of assets belonging to Italy’s UniCredit, the European lender with the second-biggest exposure to Russia, according to court documents.
The seizure marks one of the biggest such moves against a western bank since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine prompted most international lenders to withdraw or wind down their businesses in Russia. It comes after the European Central Bank told Eurozone lenders with operations in the country to speed up their exit plans.
The seized sum was equivalent to about 4.5 per cent of UniCredit’s assets in the country, according to the latest financial statement from the bank’s main Russian subsidiary. Frozen assets include shares in subsidiaries of UniCredit in Russia as well as stocks and funds it owned.
Friday’s move follows a claim from Ruskhimalliance, a subsidiary of Gazprom, the Russian oil and gas giant that holds a monopoly on pipeline gas exports.
The dispute began in August 2023 when Ruskhimalliance went to an arbitration court in St Petersburg demanding that UniCredit pay bank guarantees under a contract with the German engineering company Linde.
Ruskhimalliance is the operator of a gas processing plant and production facilities for liquefied natural gas in Ust-Luga near St Petersburg. In July 2021, it signed a contract with Linde for the design, supply of equipment and construction of the complex. A year later, Linde suspended work due to EU sanctions.
Ruskhimalliance then turned to the guarantee banks, which refused to fulfil their obligations because “the payment to the Russian company could violate European sanctions”, the company said in the court filing.
In addition to UniCredit, the list of guarantors included Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Bayerische Landesbank and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, against which Ruskhimalliance has also filed lawsuits to the St Petersburg court.
The Italian lender said it had been made aware of the filing.
Italy’s foreign minister has called a meeting on Monday to discuss the seizures affecting the country’s second-largest bank, two people with knowledge of the plans told the Financial Times.
UniCredit is one of the largest European lenders in Russia, employing more than 3,000 people through its subsidiary there. Earlier this month the Italian bank reported that its Russian business had made a net profit of €213mn in the first quarter, up from €99mn a year earlier.
It has set aside more than €800mn in provisions and has significantly cut back its loan portfolio, however. Chief executive Andrea Orcel said this month that while the lender was “continuing to de-risk” its Russian operation, a full exit from the country would be complicated.
The FT reported on Friday that the European Central Bank had asked Eurozone lenders with operations in the country for detailed plans on their exit strategies as tensions between Moscow and the west continue to grow.
Legal challenges over assets held by western banks have complicated their efforts to extricate themselves. Last month, a Russian court ordered the seizure of more than $400mn of funds from JPMorgan Chase following a legal challenge by Kremlin-run lender VTB. A court subsequently cancelled part of the planned seizure, Reuters reported.
