OREANDA-NEWS  The Moscow Arbitration Court on the claim of JSC Unicredit Bank, the Russian structure of the Italian UniCredit group, recovered more than 172.1 million euros (about 18.2 billion rubles at the current exchange rate) from the German division of this group UniCredit Bank GmbH, RIA Novosti correspondent reports from the courtroom.

Initially, the lawsuit filed in April stated claims for debt collection under three counter–guarantees - from September 9, 2021 in the amount of about 12.4 million euros, from July 2, 2021 in the amount of about 8.1 million euros and from June 24, 2019 in the amount of about 145.8 million euros, as well as interest for late execution obligations under these counter-guarantees. The total amount of the claim exceeded 174.9 million euros.

As the representatives of the parties in court explained, the Russian bank provided its guarantees for the obligations of the Siemens concern under its contracts with Russian Railways for the supply of trains. After Siemens refused to execute contracts in 2022 and subsequent proceedings ended in favor of Russian Railways, the Russian Unicredit Bank made guarantee payments to the railway company.
Then, by way of recourse, the Russian bank filed a lawsuit against the German UniCredit Bank for payments on counter-guarantees issued to it. The court of first instance on Wednesday partially satisfied the claim, reducing the interest claimed by the plaintiff. In addition, interest was collected from the defendant before the date of actual fulfillment of obligations.

The Italian Unicredit Banking Group operates in 18 countries. Unicredit Bank has been operating in Russia since 1989. It is the largest Russian bank with foreign participation. The net profit of the Unicredit group in Russia for 2023 amounted to 665 million euros against a 200 million loss a year earlier. In November 2023, it was reported that the Italian UniCredit was excluded from the list of global systemically important banks by the end of 2022. There were 29 such banks in the world at that time.

In May 2022, Siemens announced its decision to carry out an orderly process of curtailing industrial activities in Russia, including the concern and its structures decided to withdraw from joint ventures with Russian Railways and terminate supply contracts and service contracts for the maintenance of previously delivered trains.