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PPF Wins Arbitration Ruling In 2-Year Old Dispute With Basic Element

Posted Tue, 08/12/2009 - 21:22

After a two-year legal battle between PPF Investments and Oleg Deripaska's Basic Element, an arbitration court has ruled in favour of PPF regarding rule changes designed to hamper its involvement with Russian insurance company Ingosstrakh. As a minority investors, PPF was subjected to new rules for Ingosstrakh board members which it believed was both discriminatory and unnecessarily restricting to shareholder rights. The court apparently agreed, saying the new rules violated Russian law. Earlier this year Mr. Deripaska withdrew from negotiations to sell his stake in Ingosstrakh, unhappy that PPF would be given joint control with 50-50 partner Generali.

Ingosstrakh (www.ingosstrakh.ru/en/)
As the largest insurance company in Russia, Ingosstrakh's client list includes large corporations, industrial leaders, retail companies, international trading concerns, and banking institutions. The company began as a part of the USSR's Ministry of Finance in 1947, but is now a joint-stock company with more than 80 branches throughout Russia and the CIS. Based in Moscow, Ingosstrakh is also active in India and China, employing several thousand people across all company operations.