The Vienna Regional Civil Court ruled in favour of the Austrian lender's claim for damages tied to its Russian business, Bloomberg reported, citing the ruling. The decision covers 24% of shares in construction company Strabag SE plus frozen dividends, for a total of €3.2bn ($3.6bn). The deadline to appeal has expired, The Bell reported.
RBI said in a statement distributed on Thursday that it will now ask Austrian regulators to unfreeze the shares so it can sell them and collect the money awarded under the claim. EU rules allow sanctioned assets to be unblocked to compensate companies for losses caused by Russian court decisions.
RBI chief executive Michael Höllerer told an investment conference in Vienna that "today is a very important day" for the bank, which now holds a final and legally binding Austrian court ruling. He said the funds would most likely go toward business development, acquisitions and shareholder payouts, but that he would decide how to use the money only after the entire procedure is completed.
The ruling would allow Raiffeisen to move capital out of its Russian subsidiary for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, albeit indirectly. Earlier attempts to sell the unit or swap assets did not receive regulatory approval.
The dispute dates to 2023, when Raiffeisen and Deripaska sought to arrange an asset swap in Austria and Russia, but the scheme fell through. Under the plan, the Russian Raiffeisen bank would have bought a stake in Strabag from Rasperia and transferred it to the parent bank as dividends. The deal collapsed under US pressure; Washington has had sanctions on Deripaska since 2018, The Moscow Times reported.
Rasperia, which Deripaska had by then sold to businessman Dmitry Beloglazov, sought compensation through a Russian court. Under that ruling, Raiffeisen was forced to pay a sum exceeding €2bn. The bank filed its claim in Austria in response to those decisions, which obliged its subsidiary to pay Rasperia a total of €3.2bn over how Strabag applied EU sanctions.
Raiffeisen still owns the largest Western bank in Russia, though it has significantly scaled back operations there in recent years. In that time the bank has accumulated billions of euros in profit in Russia that it cannot repatriate.
In September, RBI shares on the Vienna Stock Exchange fell almost 8% after a report by US short seller Grizzly Research on the bank's Russian business. The report cited more than 19,500 Russian customs records worth about $1.19bn linked to goods under Western sanctions or export restrictions. Raiffeisen called the report erroneous and misleading.