MOSCOW, June 19 (RAPSI, Sergei Feklyunin) - The Supreme Commercial Court has upheld the decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed by former Transaero shareholder Eskerkhan Mutalibov to collect 1.62 billion rubles (over $50 million) from the airline, a court representative told RAPSI.

The Federal Commercial Court of the Moscow District sent Eskerkhan Mutalibov's lawsuit against the airline back for review on February 4, thus annulling the rulings of two lower courts to dismiss the claim. However, the Supreme Commercial Court overruled this judgment. 

According to the Transaero shareholders list, Mutalibov held 5% of the airline's shares in May 2003. However, he was not on the list compiled for the next annual general meeting in May 2004. Mutalibov claimed that he neither sold his shares nor signed any documents of sale, and that he never received any payment for his stake.

The Reyestr and Computershare registrars, which were involved as co-defendants, said that Mutalibov was never registered as a shareholder. There are no documents to prove the plaintiff's statement, Transaero said.

The Supreme Commercial Court pointed out that Mutalibov should have been concerned when he was not invited to the company's AGM and did not receive any dividends in 2004 and should have requested explanations. However, he took no action until 2011, when he sent the registrar a request for a statement of his account. He filed his lawsuit on April 3, 2012. 

The court ruled that the limitation period in Mutalibov's case had long expired because of the former shareholder's inaction.

Transaero was established in 1990 and its stock has been traded on the MICEX since March 29, 2011. It is directly controlled by Olga and Alexander Pleshakovs with 43% of shares. Other large shareholders are chief of the Interstate Aviation Committee Tatyana Anodina with 3%, Lev Khasis with 6.48% and Transaero Finance with 4.23%. Transaero's net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards more than tripled in 2011 to 1.83 billion rubles ($57.1 million).