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May 26, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 3
vide the right equipment to allow transporters to unload and load goods in a quick and secure way, they will go to other countries.”
The Constanta Port Operators Association, which represents operators at the port, has hit back against criticism by FP. It responded to complaints from the fund in November, saying in
Russia’s Otkritie
uses London bank as collateral for €250mn loan
House show that Otkritie received a five-year loan worth €250mn with an interest rate of 4% per an- num. Otkritie made the revelation in its 55-page 2016 earnings disclosure.
“The shares of Otkritie Capital International Limited have been pledged as collateral,” director Howard Snell said without elaborating.
The bank said a previous loan issued on April 6, 2016, had been repaid in full. Otkritie did not indi- cate whether its London business, which employs 56 people, had been used as a guarantee for the prior loan.
A leading Russia financial analyst said he was “incredulous” that any lender would value Otkri- tie’s London business at as much as €250mn and would charge so little.
“I would be surprised if their UK operation is worth a quarter of that amount,” the analyst
told bne IntelliNews. “This only makes sense if they received the loan from a friend of the family, so to speak.”
Alexander Dmitriev, managing director for com-
a statement that the fund was a “money-making machine” and accusing it of failing to invest in its assets while paying out substantial dividends to shareholders.
Konieczny responded at the press conference, telling journalists that if the law is adopted “there will be no profits to invest”.
munications at Otrkitie in Moscow, did not reply to requests for comment.
The London unit’s post-tax profit slumped by almost 50% last year to $30mn from $57mn in 2015. The accounts, which were audited by BDO, disclosed that the company had previously made “an error” in its previously issued financial state- ments.
Otkritie said recoveries of $25.8mn of funds previously written off in relation to a fraud case involving their former fixed-income trader George Urumov had been “classified under commissions” in the prior year.
The lender’s investment bank is still struggling to regain credibility after the scandal involving Uru- mov, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a court in London in January for trying to swindle the bank out of $150mn.
Urumov was found guilty by a jury of mispricing Argentine warrants in a bid to steal more than $100mn. The trader also convinced then Otkritie CEO Roman Lokhov to pay him and his fixed- income team $25mn in a signing-on fee to be shared equally. But Urumov only gave $4.7mn to four colleagues before pocketing the rest through a web of offshore companies that he controlled.
Otkritie has become notorious for revealing little about its opaque dealmaking. Two years ago, with a $7bn bond repayment looming, oil giant Rosneft borrowed heavily in the local market in a deal that sent the ruble crashing.