Press releases

The appeal court decides in favour of the Ingosstrakh insurer’s minority shareholders in the dispute over related party transactions

12/1/2011 | Moscow | Back

Today the Federal Court of the Moscow Region supported the position of Ingosstrakh’s minority shareholders by quashing the decisions of lower-instance courts and returning for reconsideration the case concerning the illegality of the adoption of related party transactions by the General Meeting of OSAO Ingosstrakh in 2010.

PPFI’s spokesperson Jan Piskáček states that “the company welcomes the Federal Court’s decision, which supports our view that there are no grounds for motivation to reject the suit. We sincerely believe that, after reconsidering the matter, the court will uphold the view of the minority shareholders, who have submitted convincing evidence of affiliation between Ingosstrakh and Bazel, and that it will consequently annul the decisions approving the transactions that are to the detriment of the insurer”.

Ingosstrakh’s illegal practice of entering into transactions with related parties, i.e. structures which, together with the insurance company itself, are controlled by Bazel, has been challenged by PPF Investments for several years. Minority shareholders are indignant that Bazel in fact finances other companies in the Group through such transactions without the consent, and to the detriment, of the remaining shareholders of the insurer, doing so in contravention of the Public Limited Companies Act. Today’s decision of the Federal Court of the Moscow Region will become a precedent that will force Bazel to respect the legal rights of all shareholders of the insurer regardless of how large their equity interest is.

PPF Investments’ press spokesman, Jan Piskáček
jan.piskacek@ppfinvestments.com