The Moscow Arbitrage Court has approved the terms of a settlement agreement between the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) and First Container Terminal, part of Global Ports Investments, with respect to the findings of FAS in April 2017 that FCT (as well as a number of other Russian terminal operators) was in breach of antimonopoly laws in relation to the pricing of stevedoring services in Russian ports.
Although the specific terms of the agreement are confidential, the Group has confirm that “the terms of the settlement will not have any material impact on the Group’s financial position or cash flow and will not negatively affect FCT’s operating activities in any significant way”.
In April 2017 the anti-trust authorities also found two other Group’s terminals, VSC and PLP, to be in breach of the antimonopoly legislation in relation to the pricing of stevedoring services.
FAS claimed the terminals set and kept tariffs for handling containers on a monopolistic high level and ordered the terminals to transfer to the federal budget the money they earned using their dominating market position.
FCT was ordered to pay 4.17 bn rubles to the budget, PLP 1.27 bn rubles and VSC 1.27 bn rubles.
The Group challenged the FAS findings with respect to each of FCT, VSC and PLP and appealed against the orders in court.
The Group said in a statement it expects that PLP and VSC will reach settlements with FAS on similar terms in the near future. Court hearings on the subject are scheduled later this month.