On Monday, Rough & Polished received the following comment from ALROSA regarding the 34.7-billion-ruble claim filed by ALROSA-Nyurba minority shareholders in the Arbitration Court of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).On June 5, Dmitri Samsonov, Alexander Yankovsky and Yuri Zhilyaev, who are the shareholders of ALROSA-Nyurba PJSC, filed a claim in the Arbitration Court of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) against AK ALROSA (PJSC) for damages in favor of PJSC ALROSA-Nyurba. The amount of their claims is 34 767 million rubles.
The lawsuit was filed after the licenses for the use of subsoil blocks for diamond mining at the Nakyn deposit were reissued on June 1 by the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use from ALROSA-Nyurba PJSC to AK ALROSA (PJSC) in connection with the ongoing liquidation of ALROSA-Nyurba PJSC.
The plaintiffs consider that the losses of ALROSA-Nyurba PJSC resulted from the forfeiture of rights to use the corresponding subsoil blocks.
AK ALROSA (PJSC) considers the submitted claims to be unfounded, since the decision to liquidate ALROSA-Nyurba PJSC and the liquidation procedure are being implemented in full compliance with the law. Consequently, the consequences of this decision, including the impossibility of retaining the right to use subsoil by a legal entity in liquidation, cannot be the basis for shareholders to have a right for indemnification.
It should be noted that if the claim will be satisfied, the amount collected will fall into the liquidation estate of ALROSA-Nyurba PJSC and will be subject to distribution among the shareholders of ALROSA-Nyurba PJSC in proportion to the number of shares they hold. The share of ALROSA PJSC in ALROSA-Nyurba PJSC is 97.5%.
The court also granted the application for interim measures - to prohibit the registration authority from carrying out registration actions related to the exclusion of ALROSA-Nyurba PJSC from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities for the period of case hearings.
Victoria Quiri, Correspondent of the European Bureau, Rough & Polished, Strasbourg
