MOSCOW, April 17 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court ruled that Rusenergo Fund Limited, a major investor in several Russian power generating and grid companies, must pay VTB Bank 60 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) for breach of loan terms, RAPSI reported on Friday from the courtroom.

VTB filed a lawsuit to collect the funds under a loan agreement dated February 15, 2008, including 38.8 billion rubles in principal, 16.5 billion rubles in interest, 2.1 billion rubles in penalties on the principal, and 3.2 billion rubles in penalties on the interest.

Rusenergo has admitted the claim in part, but asked the court to reduce the sum of payments commensurately with the cost of the power companies’ stocks used as loan collateral, which the court seized in the fall of 2014. Rusenergo has assessed these stocks at 15.5 billion rubles ($312 million). It has also asked the court to reduce the penalties on the interest, arguing that the sum was not commensurate with the offense.

A VTB attorney asked the court to dismiss both motions, claiming that the Rusenergo stocks turned over to the bank had not been sold yet because the bank was in talks with the stock exchange. He also said the penalty on loan interest was commensurate.

As a result, the court reduced the overall penalty from 60.6 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) to 60 billion rubles.

Otkritie UES Capital Partners Fund PLC (renamed Rusenergo) borrowed funds from VTB Bank for the purchase of stocks in power generating and grid companies.

The federal grid company FGC UES is suing Rusenergo for 20.3 billion rubles ($409 million), power utility RusHydro for 11.4 billion rubles ($229.5 million), and grids operator Rosseti for 2.6 billion rubles ($52 million).