DTEK said it had finally divested all its coal assets in Russia in 2021. Therefore, for the past three years, the company has had nothing to do with these assets, reads a statement by the group's press service.
"The decision to sell the mines in Rostov Region was made back in 2014 in connection with Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine. Since then, DTEK Group has stopped all investments and capital expenditures and started the process of exiting the business," DTEK said.
The company added that DTEK Energy acquired coal mines in Rostov Region in 2011-2012 to ensure the operation of thermal power plants.
Slidstvo.Info has published an investigation based on leaked Cypriot documents.
According to them, after the annexation of Crimea, in 2016, Rinat Akhmetov's energy company DTEK transferred ownership of a number of coal mines to a subsidiary of Fabcell Ltd. based in Cyprus. In addition, DTEK transferred to the subsidiary the obligations under a loan of about $400 million from Sberbank.
In January 2017, Fabcell reclassified its shares into 7,999 ordinary shares and one golden share. The golden share was assigned to Sberbank, which would have allowed the bank to take control of Akhmetov's company in the event of a default.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, DTEK tried to sell its Rostov coal mines. But no buyer was found. Therefore, the ownership of the mines was transferred to Fabcell to "limit [DTEK's] vulnerability to the claims of Sberbank as a creditor and pave the way for DTEK to exit its investments in Rostov coal mines".