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Deutsche Bank and UniCredit sue Linde over Russia sanctions losses
Leading banks including Deutsche Bank and UniCredit are suing industrial gases group Linde in a test case over who should bear the cost of western sanctions against Russia, as they seek to recover hundreds of millions of euros in assets seized by Russian courts.
The first will be heard in a Frankfurt court on Tuesday, where Deutsche Bank is seeking about €260mn in compensation from Linde for assets confiscated when the German engineering group withdrew from a €10bn gas project in north-western Russia.
The case will help clarify whether banks that issued guarantees remain liable for losses arising from sanctions or whether those costs can be passed back to the companies whose exit from Russia triggered the claims.
The dispute stems from contracts signed in 2021 between a consortium including Linde Engineering and RusChemAlliance (RCA), a joint venture half-owned by Gazprom, to build a gas processing plant as well as a liquefied natural gas plant in the port of Ust-Luga. RCA paid Linde more than €1bn in advance to begin work.
To secure Linde’s contractual obligations, lenders including Deutsche Bank and UniCredit issued advance payment and performance guarantees in favour of RCA.
When EU sanctions forced Linde to suspend work on the project after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the banks refused to honour the guarantees, arguing that payment would breach EU sanctions. Russian courts then ordered the seizure of about €1bn worth of assets held by the banks in Russia.
Deutsche Bank lost about €244mn of local assets, while UniCredit lost roughly €460mn, Commerzbank around €90mn and German state-owned banks BayernLB and LBBW about €270mn and €50mn respectively. RCA also enforced claims against Linde’s Russian joint-venture interests, forcing the sale of its stakes to local partners.
The losses have since surfaced in the banks’ annual reports. Deutsche Bank said it had initially booked a €260mn provision alongside a matching reimbursement asset, but later wrote off the asset after RCA seized €244mn directly from its Russian accounts, acknowledging that reimbursement from Linde was no longer “virtually certain”.
The banks initially obtained anti-suit injunctions from English courts preventing RCA from pursuing claims in Russia but withdrew them last year after Russian courts threatened heavy financial penalties.
Deutsche Bank, UniCredit and Commerzbank have since sued Linde in Germany, arguing that the engineering group is contractually required to compensate them for the losses.
The Frankfurt court confirmed Tuesday’s hearing, with the amount in dispute standing at about €260mn.
The Munich Regional Court confirmed that UniCredit’s lawsuit seeking about €450mn was in the pretrial stage. The court also confirmed that Commerzbank has filed a separate claim seeking almost €100mn.
BayernLB, which has not filed a lawsuit against Linde, has set aside a €285mn provision for the dispute alongside a matching reimbursement claim against the engineering group.
Linde said the Frankfurt hearing concerned “complex issues relating to a guarantee agreement” connected to a large industrial construction contract in Russia that it terminated because of EU sanctions imposed following the war in Ukraine.
“It is Linde’s practice not to comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” the company added.
BayernLB, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank declined to comment. UniCredit referred to its annual reports.
LBBW, which unlike its peers has not disclosed a separate legal provision for the case, said the lender had not filed a lawsuit against Linde. “We do not expect any significant financial burdens from the legal disputes in Russia.”
Linde has disclosed contingent liabilities of about $1.2bn relating to advance payments received for the cancelled RCA projects.