Russia's richest man seems to have managed to avoid the freezing of his €1.1 billion stake in Tui.
The reason is billionaire Alexei Mordasov, who is the largest shareholder (with a 34% stake)[/B] in Tui[/B] after he boosted his stake in the company during the pandemic.
After Mordasov was included in the sanctions lists, he sold a large part of his stake in Tui (29.9%) to Ondero, a company based in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands. Also, as Tui announced a few days ago, the remaining 4.1% was transferred to Mordasov's Russian investment vehicle, called Severgroup.
Tui also announced that the transfers took place on 28 February, the day Mordasov was placed on the EU sanctions list.Under the sanctions, his entire stake in the world's largest tourism group would have been "frozen", meaning he could neither sell his shares nor receive dividends. He would also be unable to vote on the company's board of directors or to exploit the profits from his share in the company in any way. He resigned from the Tui board on 2 March.
Tui also confirmed that the small stake it passed to Severgroup, worth €185 million, has been "frozen". The group noted, however, that it does not know who the owners of Ondero are and whether the stake that ended up there is subject to Western sanctions.
As a Tui spokesman explained:"We cannot judge whether and how sanctions are imposed there. Tui would just like to be informed if there is a majority shareholder (in Ondero). The information obligations under capital market law in Germany apply to all shareholders of companies, irrespective of their domicile. The company cannot examine the issue or identify Ondero shareholders, as Tui and the German supervisory authority BaFin did not receive information on additional voting rights."
Recall that Mordasov was among the first oligarchs targeted by Western sanctions. Indeed, as the EU claimed. his investments in Rossiya bank and his participation in TV stations played a role in destabilizing Ukraine by projecting pro-Russian messages.
[/P]Source.gr with information from Guardian
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