MOSCOW, July 20 (RAPSI) - Rusenergo Fund Limited, a corporation which invests in Russian power-generation companies, has withdrawn its appeal against a ruling to pay almost 60 billion rubles ($1 bln) to VTB Bank, RAPSI reported on Monday from the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals.

Last April, the Moscow Commercial Court fully upheld VTB’s lawsuit against Rusenergo Fund and ordered that the defendant pay its debt under a loan agreement of February 15, 2008.

The court rejected Rusenergo Fund’s request to reduce the amount of debt by the value of the company’s shares that were used as collateral and which were already seized by the bank last year. The defendant estimates that the shares are worth 15.5 billion rubles ($273 mln). VTB claims the shares that were transferred to VTB have not been sold yet.

VTB Bank issued a loan to Otkritie UES Capital Partners Fund PLC, later renamed Rusenergo, to purchase stock in energy companies. The fund was established by the Otkritie financial corporation to buy stock from the minority stakeholders in UES of Russia that were not happy with energy industry reform. The fund was used to invest in Russian electricity generating and electric grid companies.

After VTB, major lawsuits against Rusenergo Fund were filed by the Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System (20.3 bln rubles or $357 mln), Rushydro (11.4 bln rubles or $200.4 mln) and Rosseti (2.6 bln rubles or $45.7 mln). These lawsuits have not been heard yet. On May 13, the Moscow Commercial Court ordered management supervision over Energo Finans, the owner of Rusenergo Fund, which has estimated debt of over 36.2 bln rubles ($636.3 mln).