MOSCOW, March 10 (RAPSI) - Ural Invest, a company owned by former Bashneft owner Ural Rakhimov, and AFK Sistema have reached an out of court settlement, under which Ural Invest will transfer all its monetary assets (47 billion rubles, or $781 million) to Sistema, RIA Novosti reports Thursday citing the Bashkortostani company’s lawyer, Sergei Makarenko.

“This out of court settlement needs to be approved by the Moscow Commercial Court. Under the agreement, we are transferring 47 billion rubles in assets to Sistema. Sistema has agreed to donate one-tenth of the funds to the Ural Charity Fund,” Makarenko said.

The lawyer specified that the amicable agreement was closed as the court ruling was about to be enforced. He said the company faced a dilemma: it could lose everything or save something.

It was decided to support the Ural Charity Fund so that it could continue to operate.”

Last February, the Moscow Commercial Court fully satisfied Sistema’s claim on recovering 70.7 billion rubles ($1.1 billion) in damages following the Bashneft share sale deal. The defendant did not appeal the ruling.

The plaintiff demanded that the March 27, 2009 sale and purchase of Bashneft shares be ruled invalid. In 2009, Sistema bought a major stake in Bashneft from four companies. Ural Invest was one of the sellers. The three other sellers, Agidel Invest, Inzer Invest and Yuryuzan Invest later merged with Ural Invest which was owned by Ural Rakhimov’s Ural charity fund.

Last December, Russia, represented by the Federal Agency for State Property Management, became the owner of 73.94% of Bashneft stock after the court recognized the company’s privatization as unlawful. Sistema voluntarily complied with the order of the lower court and transferred the shares to the state, after which it sued Ural Invest for damages.