Latvian citizen becomes a beneficiary of one of the most ambitious Baltic port projects

Since August 20, she has become the owner of three companies in the port of Ust-Luga with a total turnover of 3.1 billion rubles for 2021.

Interestingly, the appearance of a Latvian businesswoman in three companies of the holding coincided with the involvement of Sberbank and its Cyprus subsidiary “Sberbank Investments Limited” in their financial configuration. Since July 2020, 100% of the shares of “Ultra Fert” and “Ultramar Logistics” have been pledged in this bank. These shares belong to Elena Bonch-Bruevich’s Latvian "Ultra Group".

Alexander Arbouzov, Partner of the Duvernoix Legal Law Firm:

— Pledge of these companies and their subsequent transfer to the ownership of the Latvian "Ultra Group" may not be related to each other, although this would definitely not have happened without the consent of the pledgee bank. However, it is quite possible that the bank, when concluding pledge agreements, seemed to be a more reliable option for European "citizenship" of assets securing the pledge. After all, Sberbank's right to pledge shares in the companies of the group may indicate that Sberbank is crediting the group, and these credits are secured by the pledge. The purpose of the credit is also served by the presence of a seemingly insignificant percentage of shares (0.01%) of Sberbank's subsidiary in the parent company. With the help of this share, the bank exercises information rights by participating in meetings of members of the parent company and using other shareholder rights. All this is a standard practice of crediting by Russian banks.