Linde UK assets frozen by Russian court for $1.2 billion

In a dispute over the ownership of a gas plant, a Russian court ordered assets of a British Linde subsidiary worth $1.15 billion to be frozen.

RusChemAlliance is a joint-venture 50% owned by Russia’s Gazprom. RusChemAlliance filed other lawsuits against European banks for the construction of a German-owned gas processing plant with Russia's Linde that was halted by Western sanctions.

RusChemAlliance asked the Court of Arbitration of St Petersburg & Leningrad Region for interim measures, including the freezing of assets owned by the subsidiary Linde Russia UK Limited. The assets were worth 746 millions euros ($820.7million) and 30 billion roubles (US$333.3million).

Linde has not responded to any requests for comment.

The filings reveal that the claimant claimed that freezing assets was required because Western sanctions would make a future judgment in a jurisdiction Russia considers to be "unfriendly" impossible. Linde also argued that it was trying to remove its assets from Russian soil.

RusChemAlliance argued, too, that Linde did not possess sufficient assets in Russia to enforce an order.

In January 2023 the same court ordered that nearly $500 million in assets of Linde be frozen.

The court agreed with RusChemAlliance, and ordered that funds, securities, real estate, and bank accounts of the British subsidiary be frozen.

Linde and Renaissance Heavy Industries will sign a contract in 2021 with Gazprom, and its partners, for engineering, procurement, and construction of the Ust-Luga Gas Complex.

Linde informed the customer that the work on the contract had been suspended due to European Union Sanctions imposed following Russia's invasion in Ukraine.

RusChemAlliance claims that EU sanctions prohibit the supply of equipment for the plant to liquefy natural gas, but not for equipment needed for the gas processing plant.

(source: Reuters)