Sanctioned Russian oligarch fails in bid to stop being frozen out of Strabag

Image: Strabag

A shareholder controlled by a Russian oligarch has failed in a bid to annul a decision to freeze its stake in Austrian contractor Strabag.

The European Union placed oligarch Oleg Deripaska on its sanctions list in April 2022. As a result, MKAO Rasperia Trading, which holds a 27.8% stake in Strabag is also sanctioned.

Following the sanction, Strabag froze Rasperia’s shares and prohibited it from exercising any of its rights or influence over the contractor.

Rasperia was barred from Strabag’s extraordinary general meeting on 5 May 2022, as well as its annual general meeting on 24 June 2022.

But Rasperia applied to annul that decision in court. Now the Klagenfurt Regional Court in Austria has dismissed the action for annulment and confirmed that Strabag was within its rights to exclude Rasperia from the meetings and deny it from exercising associated voting rights.

Strabag CEO Klemens Haselsteiner said, “From the beginning, we were convinced that we were acting fully in accordance with the applicable sanctions regime.

“An asset freeze means that not only dividend entitlements are frozen, but also the right to participate and to vote in the General Meeting. We are pleased that this has now been confirmed by the courts.”

Strabag announced in May this year that it would cut the stake of Rasperia to below 25%, down from 27.8%.

At the time, Strabag said that the move would “reduce risks and detrimental effects on the company’s business activities related to sanctions imposed on Oleg Deripaska”.