By Gleb Bryanski
MOSCOW, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A Moscow court dismissed on Tuesday a motion by prosecutors to seize the assets of U.S. private equity fund NCH Capital in Russia, the Interfax news agency said, as Russian and U.S. representatives sat down for talks in the Swiss resort of Davos.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Russian authorities have confiscated or placed under state management assets worth some $50 billion belonging to foreign and Russian owners, with courts generally backing
the state's claims.
Prosecutors filed a lawsuit against NCH Capital and its founders, George Rohr, a U.S. citizen, and Moris Tabacinic, an Austrian citizen, seeking to ban NCH's activities in Russia on the grounds that the founders funded Ukraine's military forces.
NCH owns Russian agricultural producer AgroTerra, one of Russia's top 20 landholders, which was placed under temporary state management by a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in April 2024.
Interfax said the judge ruled the court would not hear the case and revoked the previously ordered interim measures. The agency did not provide further details.
The full text of the court's decision is expected to be published in the next few days. The prosecutors can appeal the decision. NCH Capital said it was encouraged by the court's ruling.
"We are encouraged by the decision of the judge to dismiss the claim which we consider to be entirely without merit," the fund said in a statement to Reuters.
"We remain hopeful that the Russian President will issue a decree terminating the State Property Fund management imposed on AgroTerra in April 2024, allowing the investors to regain control over their assets in Russia," it added.
The court decision came on a day when Russian President's envoy Kirill Dmitriev is meeting U.S. representatives on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The Kremlin said that apart from exchanging information on a peaceful settlement in Ukraine, Dmitriev would discuss economic and trade relations with the United States.
"You know that we support the resumption of these relations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Andrei Kostin, chief executive of VTB, said last December that the bank was in talks to buy AgroTerra, which it is helping the state to manage. NCH said it has no plans to sell AgroTerra and is not in negotiations regarding a possible sale.
(Reporting by Gleb Bryanski; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
