MOSCOW, March 30 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court approved a 47 billion rubles ($781 million) settlement in a lawsuit brought by AFK Sistema over a stake in Bashneft oil company, RAPSI reported on Monday from the courtroom. 

Bashneft was controlled by the government of Russia’s Bashkortostan region until 2003, when a major stake was sold to companies affiliated with Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov. The company was privatized in 2009 when Russian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate AFK Sistema gained control of it.

A court in Moscow ruled that privatization of Bashneft was held in violation of law. The Prosecutor General's Office brought a suit to return 71.6 percent stake in Bashneft back to the government. The Moscow Commercial Court ruled on October 30 in favor of the Prosecutor General's Office.

Sistema voluntarily complied with the order of the court and transferred the shares to the state. The company then sued Ural Invest for damages.

The Moscow Commercial Court in February ordered Ural Invest to pay AFK Sistema 70.7 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) in damages in connection with the seizure of its stake in Bashneft.

Ural Invest announced earlier in March that it had reached an agreement with Sistema under which it would pay out 47 billion rubles ($781 million).

A lawyer for Sistema said in court that Ural Invest would transfer the following assets to Sistema: promissory notes, receivables under bank accounts and trust management agreements, and 15 million rubles ($260,000) from a current account. At the same time, Sistema would leave 18 million rubles ($312,000) on the debtor’s current account, offices, vehicles and computers to Ural Invest.