MOSCOW, November 23 - RAPSI. The Urals District's Federal Commercial Court has upheld the dismissal of the lawsuit filed by Nizhneserginsky Hardware and Metallurgical Plant shareholder Maria Maximova to invalidate the circa 19 billion rubles ($609.9 million) loan contracts between the plant and NLMK, the court's representative told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Friday.

Therefore the court refused to uphold Maximova's appeal.

The Sverdlovsk Regional Commercial Court held against Maximova's complaint on April 9. The Seventeenth Commercial Court of Appeals supported that ruling on July 30.
The plaintiff sought to invalidate 22 loan agreements made in 2010 with NLMK.

The courts motivated their judgments by the absence of evidence that the plaintiff's rights and interests had been violated and that both she and the company had been unfavorably affected by the loans.

Previously the court upheld the plant's motion to involve Maxi-Group, which had no independent claims in the case, as a third party. Maxi-Group owns 35.5 percent of the voting shares in the Nizhneserginsky plant.

NLMK is one of the world's largest steel producers. It has divisions in Russia, the EU and the United States. Company board chairman Vladimir Lisin owns 85 percent of the shares in NLMK via an offshore Cyprus company.

The Nizhneserginsky plant has been part of the NLMK group since 2008. It is located in Sverdlovsk Region in the Urals.