Fortum proceeding from idea that it still owns Russian asset, monitoring situation in Russia - CEO

MOSCOW. April 1 (Interfax) - Fortum is proceeding from the idea that the power generating company still owns its Russian asset, and the company is monitoring the situation in Russia, CEO Markus Rauramo said during the annual general shareholders meeting.

Rauramo said that Fortum still owns the asset in future scenarios.

Fortum had already been in the process of selling Russian assets and saw interest in them, though had not received permission for the deal from the Russian government, he said.

Fortum is of course monitoring the situation closely, Rauramo said.

Fortum has not received any information about the production and financial performance of its Forward Energo for the past two years.

Rauramo said that Fortum had no idea what was happening at Forward Energo, so Fortum has written off the asset.

He also said that Fortum is currently involved in two lawsuits related to Russia. The first lawsuit was filed against Russia with a demand to compensate for investments and the cost of Forward Energo shares. The second concerns intra-group loans worth about 600 million euros issued to the Russian subsidiary.

Fortum was one of the largest foreign investors in Russia's electric power industry. The Finnish concern in Russia owns 98.23% of PJSC Forward Energo, which has been under the management of Russia's Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimuschestvo) since April 2023; and about 30% of PJSC TGK-1 , whose principal shareholder is Gazprom Energoholding. Fortum was also one of the largest investors in Russian wind power. Fortum decided in 2023 to write off its Russian assets completely and deconsolidate them in its financial statements.