According to the arbitration case database, the court dismissed the defendant's appeal against the August ruling of the Moscow Arbitration Court, making the decision legally binding.
As explained by the plaintiff's representative in court, Zarubezhneft sought to recover damages in the amount of the coupon income on federal loan bonds it purchased after March 2022 from a company registered in the Cayman Islands. The coupon income was blocked in a C-type account at Belgium's Euroclear Bank, which was held in the Russian National Settlement Depository (NSD).
The defendant rejected the claim, arguing that the funds did reach the Euroclear account, but the bank could not manage these funds due to restricted and regulated operations on the account. The defendant’s representative also noted that procedures for seeking regulatory approval for unblocking such funds were yet to be established.
Previously, the plaintiff requested interim measures to prohibit Euroclear and NSD from performing operations with Euroclear Bank's funds in C and I-type accounts for the claimed amount and to seize the defendant's funds in the same accounts at NSD. Courts of two instances denied these requests.
In related proceedings, arbitration courts had earlier awarded Zarubezhneft approximately $58.1 million from Euroclear Bank. This amount included around $58 million in bond redemption payments and about $116,000 in coupon income on eurobonds owned by the plaintiff. According to case materials, Zarubezhneft holds a portfolio of eurobonds issued by non-resident entities, with beneficiaries including major Russian companies such as Rosneft, Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, and Novatek. These securities have been frozen by the defendant.
Zarubezhneft is a 100% state-owned oil and gas company specializing in the development of oil and gas fields in Russia and abroad. It operates fields in the Nenets Autonomous Area, develops the continental shelf of southern Vietnam through its joint venture Vietsovpetro, and conducts oil extraction projects in Uzbekistan, Cuba, Egypt, and Indonesia.