BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s Economy Ministry informed Rosneft earlier this week that it was considering expropriating shares in the company’s German assets, the Russian oil giant’s law firm in Germany said on Thursday, adding that it would take all measures to protect shareholders’ rights.
The ministry told Rosneft on Tuesday that if Russia regained control over the companies, which include Berlin’s main PCK Schwedt refinery, the refineries’ operation would be jeopardized because contractual partners would refuse to cooperate, law firm Malmendier Legal said in a statement published on LinkedIn.
On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Berlin was preparing for a possible nationalisation of Rosneft’s German activities, including its 54.17% stake in Berlin’s Schwedt refinery, which the government put under a trusteeship in September 2022 in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Germany has since extended the trusteeship twice, most recently in September 2023 and needs to make a fresh decision in March, when the current trusteeship expires.
Due to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, it is not apparent that the situation would change, the law firm cited the ministry as saying.
Rosneft will take all measures to protect the rights of its shareholders, added the law firm, saying that such expropriation would be an unprecedented measure in Germany and would forever damage investment security in the country.
“If a return to Russian control is not at all foreseeable due to the existing state trusteeship and ongoing conflict in Ukraine, why should expropriation be necessary?,” Malmendier Legal added.
Rosneft office in Moscow did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
In December, Rosneft filed a case at Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court against the government’s trusteeship of its local subsidiaries, saying a March court ruling that upheld the trusteeship violated the constitutional principle of the right to be heard.
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Miranda Murray and Toby Chopra)
