Linde finally shut off the gas
The Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg denied the German company the removal of the arrest from assets in Russia.
The Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region rejected the application of the German company Linde, the former contractor for the construction of a gas processing plant in Ust-Luga, to remove interim measures from assets imposed as part of the lawsuit of the project operator Rushimalliance. These measures prevent a foreign firm from closing or selling a business in Russia, lawyers suggest, but, most likely, Linde is unlikely to be able to cancel the seizure of property in international arbitration.
Information that the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region refused to satisfy the application of the German company Linde to lift the arrest of Russian assets in a dispute with the company “Rushimalliance” appeared in the filing cabinet of arbitration cases at the beginning of the week. The property of the Linde GmbH branch in Samara, its shares in Linde Gas Rus, Linde Uraltekhgaz, Linde Gas Novotroitsk, Linde Gas Lipetsk, Gazprom Linde Engineering, Linde Engineering Rus, Cryostar remain under arrest. rus, Linde Azot Togliatti, as well as Linde PLC shares in Praxair Rus, Praxair Volgograd, Praxair Samara and Praxair Azot Togliatti. The assets were placed under onerous measures after the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region satisfied the application of Rushimalliance on December 30, 2022 and prohibited these companies from alienating property, the book value of which is more than 5% of the book value of all assets (see “b- St. Petersburg” dated 10.01.2023).
The press service of Linde Gas Rus JSC and the parent company Linde GmbH did not respond to a request from Kommersant-SPb whether the company would challenge the refusal of the Russian court to lift burdensome measures. “It can be assumed that in the statement the defendant refers to the lack of connection between the claims and the imposed interim measures, which are more reminiscent of measures in a corporate dispute,” says Varvara Knutova, partner, lawyer at Sotheby law firm. “It is possible that the defendant would like to close or sell a business due to the inability to work under sanctions, and measures prevent this. Theoretically, the defendant can try to appeal the refusal – and, probably, he will do so.
As Kommersant-SPb wrote, the value of the arrested assets of the former German contractor is estimated at 35 billion rubles. Having received a court ruling on interim measures in the form of seizure of property, Rushimalliance intends to apply to the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center with a claim against Linde, which complies with the terms of the contract, the court decision says. The price of the Rushimalliance lawsuit against the defendants will be about a billion euros: €946.5 million of the unworked advance payment and another €25.7 million (7.6 billion rubles). Rushimalliance will apply to the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center. The seat of the dispute is Hong Kong, the place of hearing is Stockholm, Sweden.
According to Ms. Knutova, if the international arbitral tribunal recognizes its competence and considers the case on the merits, the measures imposed by the Russian court will continue to “hang”, unless the defendant offers a worthy replacement that will satisfy the arbitrators.
