RBI Chases Frozen Strabag Shares

Raiffeisen Bank International has gone to court in Austria looking for €3.15 billion from assets that EU sanctions have already locked away. The target is a Russian-linked company, Rasperia. Russian courts say RBI owes Rasperia money. RBI now wants Vienna to let it collect from property Brussels froze after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

That is the nub of the case. A sanctions freeze is meant to stop an owner using an asset. It is not meant to transfer ownership. RBI is asking an Austrian court to test whether frozen Russian-linked value can become compensation for a Western bank’s losses.

The claim covers 28.5 million shares in Strabag, Austria’s largest construction group, along with retained dividends and cash held by Rasperia. The stake is frozen under EU Regulation 269/2014. RBI said on 23 July that a Russian anti-suit injunction, a court order intended to stop parties taking proceedings abroad, still allowed room for Austrian litigation without triggering penalties of up to €2.85 billion (Reuters/Euronext, MarketScreener).

How the losses piled up

RBI’s Russian problem began with an attempted exit. The bank tried to leave Russia partly through a deal built around Rasperia’s Strabag stake. The deal fell apart. Russian courts then turned that failed departure into a series of liabilities.

One ruling ordered RBI’s Russian subsidiary to pay roughly €2.4 billion. A second ruling, in December 2025, added €339 million. These were not paper losses waiting on appeal. In March, Russia’s central bank enforced one award by debiting RUB 31.567 billion directly from the subsidiary’s account (RBI Q1 2026 Report).

RBI had already written off €1.2 billion in expected recoveries last July and reported a €557 million quarterly loss (EQS News, Global Banking and Finance). This month, a Russian court blocked the sale of RBI’s Russian unit altogether (Ground News).

Hemmed in in Moscow, the bank has moved the fight to Vienna.

What "frozen" actually means, and why it matters

A frozen asset under EU sanctions cannot be sold, moved or used to generate income for its owner. But it has not been seized by the EU. Ownership remains where it was. The asset is caught in a legal waiting room: immobilised, but not confiscated.

The European Commission’s sanctions guidance is clear on that point. Freezing blocks use and transfer. It does not rewrite property rights.

For RBI to win, an Austrian court would have to let frozen value satisfy a private damages claim while maintaining that the EU has not confiscated the asset. That is the difficult bridge. If the court allows it, the freeze begins to look less like a neutral restriction and more like a holding account for whichever corporate claimant can make the strongest case.

That is where the wider danger lies. Moral hazard, in plain terms, is the risk that firms take worse decisions because someone else may absorb the cost. If frozen assets in Europe can ultimately cover losses incurred in Russia, the incentive to leave quickly becomes weaker.

EU diplomats know the point is sensitive. Officials told RFE/RL they feared compensation for RBI would reward a bank that stayed in Russia and could encourage Moscow to seize more European corporate assets in return (RFE/RL).

Who gains, who loses

If RBI succeeds, its shareholders and management recover value from a position that looked largely lost. Rasperia’s sanctioned side loses economic value from assets it already cannot use. The EU sanctions regime loses something less visible but more consequential: the credibility of a freeze as a restriction rather than a redistribution mechanism.

The effects would not stop in Austria. Other European companies still caught in Russia could face tougher retaliation if Moscow reads the judgment as Europe dipping into frozen property. RBI’s unresolved Russian litigation is already weighing on its position as a regional buyer. Its bid for Addiko Bank in the Adriatic stands at €26.50 per share, against NLB’s €37 offer, backed by the EBRD, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Delo, Dnevnik).

For RBI’s retail customers in Czechia, Romania and Croatia, the danger is more indirect. Local subsidiaries are separately regulated, and EU law protects deposits up to €100,000 per person (Deposit Guarantee Directive). But banks that look riskier pay more to borrow, and over time those costs tend to find their way to borrowers.

RBI reported €1.44 billion in profit excluding Russia for 2025 (RBI preliminary results, Sustainability Reports). Its Austrian claim is large beside that figure.

The court in Vienna now has to decide whether a freeze can become a payout. Every European company still entangled with Russia will be watching the answer.