The Moscow Region Arbitration Court has satisfied the claim of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade to suspend the corporate rights of the Dutch company Megapolis Distribution BV in the Russian tobacco distributor Megapolis Group of Companies, Interfax reports. The court decision was made in full, but the details of the decision have not yet been disclosed.
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“The claim is satisfied in full,” the file says.
Previously, the distributor's Russian legal entity, JSC "Trading Company 'Megapolis'", was included in the list of economically significant organizations (ESO). According to the law, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation has the right to act as a plaintiff in cases on the suspension of corporate rights of foreign shareholders of companies from the ESO list. The Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region considers such claims according to jurisdiction.
The EZO status allows Russian beneficiaries to obtain shares and stakes of such companies through the courts in direct ownership, excluding foreign holding structures from the chain of owners, or to transfer the right to them to someone else. In addition, the document makes it possible to temporarily suspend the corporate rights of foreign holdings in relation to the EZO through the courts, for example, to vote at meetings, receive dividends, and dispose of shares and stakes. To implement this opportunity, it is necessary to apply to the court with an application to suspend the exercise of corporate rights by a foreign shareholder in relation to the EZO.
JSC Trading Company Megapolis is 100% owned by the Dutch company Megapolis Distribution BV. The ultimate beneficiaries of Megapolis were Igor Kesaev and Sergey Katsiev, who owned 52.8% of the company. Such data was contained in the prospectus for the IPO of Mercury Retail Group in 2021, co-owned by Kesaev and Katsiev. Megapolis is engaged in the supply of cigarettes, soft drinks, groceries, etc.
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