Arbitration courts in Russia have begun making decisions that restrict the rights of foreign shareholders in Russian companies, as well as requiring the return of money frozen due to sanctions.
The Arbitration Court in the Moscow Region has considered a case involving the GV Gold gold mining company and its foreign shareholder – the BlackRock fund, and decided to temporarily restrict BlackRock’s right.
The GV Gold company stated that its foreign shareholders had ceased participating in general meetings since February 24th, 2022 due to restrictive measures imposed on Russia by foreign countries or international organizations. This was in response to the sanctions imposed against Russia, Russian legal entities, and individuals.
The company argued that this non-participation was contrary to the interests of the company and the court agreed, suspending the rights of the foreign investors.
GV Gold (Vysochaishy OJSC) produced 258,000 ounces of gold in 2023. The company operates six gold mines with a combined capacity of up to 10.5 million tons of ore per year.
It was reported in 2022 that BlackRock, which is the world’s leading provider of investment, advisory and risk management solutions, owned 17.99% of the shares in GV Gold.
Another court decision affected the Japanese Mizuho Bank Ltd. The Moscow Arbitration Court considered the claim of the Russian Sberbank and decided that Mizuho Bank should return 94 million yen to it, which were frozen in 2022 after the imposition of sanctions on Sberbank. Until 2022, Mizuho Bank provided Sberbank with cash clearing services in Japanese yen.
