AKIPRESS.COM - Amsterdam District Court upheld January 5 an earlier ex parte attachment granted by the same court on September 8, 2017 to Anatolie Stati, Gabriel Stati, Ascom Group S.A. and Terra Raf Trans Trading Ltd with respect to Kazakhstan's shareholding in the Dutch entity KMG Kashagan B.V.  which shareholding is held via the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna.

Through its stake in Kashagan, which has a nominal value of approximately US$5.2 billion, Kazakhstan participates in the international consortium relating to the Kashagan oilfield, one of the largest offshore oilfields in the Caspian Sea. Other members of the consortium include Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, ExxonMobil, China National Petroleum Corporation and Inpex, Canada Newswire reported.

In the judgment, the Dutch court held that, despite Samruk being a separate legal entity from Kazakhstan, "the corporate objective of Samruk is … completely subordinated to Kazakhstan's national interest, as this is established at the political level, that Kazakhstan is and will remain the sole shareholder, and that Samruk's board is controlled by (those politically responsible in) Kazakhstan."

The court then went on to conclude that "Samruk lacks de facto-economic independence in its relation to Kazakhstan, in the sense that Samruk cannot invoke its separate legal personality against Kazakhstan in order to pursue a policy of its own that deviates from the policy of (those politically responsible in) Kazakhstan… it has to be assumed that Samruk has been established by Kazakhstan (at least partially) with a view to shield Kazakhstan's assets from Kazakhstan's creditors."