VTB may lose Odessa oil refinery if the Ukraine nationalises it

The first Russian asset, which risks being nationalized by the Ukraine, could be the Odessa refinery, which curently belongs to VTB. The country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs thinks there was an illegal transfer of the plant to the bank for debts by businessman Sergei Kurchenko, against whom a criminal case was opened. Lawyers think that VTB was a good-faith acquirer in this deal, but the former assets of Kurchenko may be arrested within the criminal case.

The acting head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov stated yesterday that the Ministry was going to dispute the transfer of rights for the Odessa refinery by the businessman Sergei Kurchenko, who is accused of smuggling, to the Russian bank VTB for repayment of debts. “We have registered the scheme of the transfer of the Odessa refinery from the Kurchanko’s company to one of the Russian banks. According to our assessments, it was a very doubtful scheme. Now we are beginning to expose a swindle within the formal procedure to return the ownership of the plant to the Ukraine,” – he wrote on his page in Facebook. VTB declined to comment yesterday.