MOSCOW, October 31 (RAPSI) – The Moscow District Commercial Court will hear an appeal filed by Russian pipeline operator Transneft against reversal of a ruling saying that the company’s derivative contract worth 66.5 billion rubles (about $1.1 billion) with the Russian largest bank Sberbank was illicit, on November 30, RAPSI learnt in the court on Tuesday.

On August 30, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Sberbank and vacated the decision of the Moscow Commercial Court of June 21.

At that time, the Moscow Commercial Court annulled a derivative deal the parties made yet in December 2013 and said Sberbank had to return 66.5 billion rubles ($1.1 billion) rubles to Transneft because the transaction was invalid.

The court said that Sberbank failed to disclose all relevant information about the deal terms and the mechanism of its implementation to Transneft thus rendering the oil pipeline operator unable to evaluate the possible outcomes of the deal. The first-instance court ruled that the amount was an "excess profit" for Sberbank, which needed to be compensated.

On October 20, Transneft appealed the ruling in question.