Moza sued over US$ 2bn debt

MOSCOW. — Russia’s VTB said yesterday it had filed a lawsuit in Britain against Mozambique after a state-owned company implicated in a multi-million-dollar bribery scandal defaulted on loan repayments.

The bank wants to recover US$535 million it lent to Mozambique Asset Management (MAM) to fund a shipyard project in 2013. MAM defaulted in 2017.

“An agreed restructuring remains our preferred outcome, but after three years of discussions with no tangible progress VTB must now consider all options available to it for a resolution of this outstanding debt,” VTB spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.

Mozambique’s Attorney-General’s Office confirmed a case has been opened against the government which guaranteed the loan.

“The Attorney-General confirms that there is a case against Mozambique regarding this MAM debt but is still awaiting formal notification of the court,” a spokesman said in a text message.

Between 2013 and 2014, three state-owned companies — ProIndicus, EMATUM and MAM

— borrowed about US$2 billion from Credit Suisse and Russia’s VTB Bank to finance maritime surveillance, and buy military and tuna fishing vessels from Privinvest.

But the government only disclosed the debt in 2016 — a development that plunged the poor, donor-dependent country into its worst-ever financial crisis.

The United States alleged that at least US$200 million of the loans was spent on bribes and kickbacks to politicians and top officials. — AFP