Raiffeisen said its Russian unit agreed to buy an almost 28% stake in Austrian builder Strabag SE that was until recently held by sanctioned businessman Oleg Deripaska. — Bloomberg
VIENNA: Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) AG says it may finally have a way to move some of its assets out of Russia. What it hasn’t explained is why the complex, €1.5bil (US$1.7bil) string of transactions ended up with an executive who has a long history working for companies of a now-sanctioned tycoon.
Raiffeisen said yesterday that its Russian unit agreed to buy an almost 28% stake in Austrian builder Strabag SE that was until recently held by sanctioned businessman Oleg Deripaska.
It then plans to transfer the holding to the parent in Vienna as a dividend in kind.
If all goes as planned, Raiffeisen said it would oversee the Strabag stake via a subsidiary that, according to corporate filings, was founded as a partnership between the bank and Stephan Zoechling, a former executive at several companies in which Deripaska was the biggest shareholder.
Zoechling will run the business whose name, Gabarts, is an anadrome of Strabag.
Zoechling didn’t respond to a request for comment sent to his email and to a spokeswoman at Remus Innovation GmbH, an exhaust maker that he runs.
A spokesman for Raiffeisen declined to comment on why Zoechling was picked to help oversee the stake.
“It’s common practice that a shareholding of this magnitude is managed by a subsidiary,” the Raiffeisen spokesperson said in an emailed response to Bloomberg questions.
“Gabarts will manage the Strabag holding and all relevant controlling rights will of course stay with RBI.”
The deal would help solve a major headache for Raiffeisen, which has been considering options to sell or spin off its Russian subsidiary, the bank’s most profitable, for almost two years without success.
The business has accumulated more than €3bil in earnings that it can’t transfer because of Moscow’s restrictions on dividends.
The planned transaction, if approved, would effectively move half that amount to the parent, while allowing Deripaska to liquidate his frozen stake.
Zoechling has long had ties to the tycoon’s business empire, but also to Strabag founder Hans Peter Haselsteiner, who is a co-investor with him in Remus.
Recently, he was affiliated with a number of Austrian-Russian transactions, such as the acquisition of assets remaining after the liquidation of Sberbank Europe.
In that deal, Zoechling was granted sanctions exemption in Austria to deal with the Russian lender and buy what was left of its central and eastern European subsidiary.
The transaction was valued at €240mil, according to the Standard newspaper.
Deripaska, a billionaire, holds a large stake in En+ Group, the operator of Siberia’s biggest network of power plants.
The company also owns more than half of Rusal, Russia’s largest aluminum producer.
Months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zoechling was appointed chairman of the Mykolaiv alumina refinery in Ukraine, which was owned by Rusal.
The plant used to be the key supplier of the raw material to Rusal’s Russian smelters.
Zoechling no longer works for Rusal, the company said in an emailed response to Bloomberg questions.
En+, the holding that controls Rusal, declined to comment. Deripaska‘s press service didn’t reply to messages seeking comments.
Zoechling was also chief operating officer at construction company Transstroy when it was owned by Deripaska and was involved in infrastructure projects related to the Sochi Olympics, according to the agenda of a conference in 2014.
He also was a board member of Transstroy, according to Russian corporate filings.
Commenting on Zoechling’s appointment by Deripaska to manage the expansion of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in 2014, Haselsteiner said the Russian businessman was “very fortunate” that the Austrian was taking on the task, according to the Kurier newspaper.
“I have known Zoechling for a long time,” Haselsteiner told the paper.
“He will do well.”
Deripaska has held the stake in Strabag since 2007.
The Austrian construction company has been looking to break the gridlock caused by sanctions against the investor, including via a complex capital maneuver intended to push his ownership below 25%.
The crippling sanctions mean Strabag cannot pay dividends to Deripaska’s holding company Rasperia, which has also been banned from voting at a shareholder meeting.
Raiffeisen has said it intends to conduct the transaction in full compliance with sanctions. Strabag has said a detailed sanctions review is necessary.
Austria’s National Bank confirmed it was the sanctions authority responsible for the transactions but declined to give further details.
“RBI must ensure that the applicable European Union sanctions regulations are fully complied with at all times during the intended transaction,” it said. — Bloomberg
