Russia seizes Deutsche Bank, UniCredit assets

Russian court seizes assets of Deutsche Bank and UniCredit in response to Ukraine conflict, impacting European banks in Russia.

A Russian court has ruled that Deutsche Bank and UniCredit's assets in the country are to be seized, documents showed.

European banks have largely exited Russia after Moscow launched its offensive on Ukraine in 2022.

A court in Saint Petersburg ruled in favour of seizing 239 million euros ($260 million) from Deutsche Bank, documents dated May 16 showed.

The same day, it ordered the seizure of around 463 million euros of assets belonging to Italy's UniCredit.

Both decisions were issued in answer to a request from RusKhimAlians, which was planning to build a major gas processing and liquefaction plant in cooperation with German company Linde, which pulled out of the project due to Russia's military campaign.

RusKhimAlians sued UniCredit and Deutsche Bank — both guarantors of the project.

Deutsche Bank said it would "need to see how this claim is implemented by the Russian courts and assess the immediate operational impact in Russia".