MOSCOW, October 2 - RAPSI. The Federal Commercial Court for the Urals District has registered an appeal filed by Maria Maximova, a shareholder of Nizhneserginsky Hardware Metallurgical Plant, of the refusal to quash loan agreements between the plant and Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) worth approximately $608 million (19 billion rubles), the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com).

The Sverdlovsk Regional Commercial Court held against Maximova's complaint on April 9. The Seventeenth Commercial Court of Appeals supported that ruling on July 30.

The plaintiff sought to invalidate 22 loan agreements made in 2010 with NLMK.

The courts motivated their judgments by the absence of evidence that the plaintiff's rights and interests had been violated and that both she and the company had been unfavorably affected by the loans.

Previously the court satisfied the plant's motion to involve Maxi-Group, which had no independent claims in the case, as a third party. Maxi-Group owns 35.5 percent of the voting shares in the Nizhneserginsky Works.

NLMK is one of the world's largest steel producers. It has divisions in Russia, the EU and the United States. Company board chairman Vladimir Lisin owns 85 percent of the shares in NLMK via an offshore Cyprus company.

The Nizhneserginsky Works has been part of the NLMK group since 2008. It is located in Sverdlovsk Region in the Urals.