The court arrested the cement plants of Ludwig Merkle in Russia

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office filed a lawsuit against four companies associated with the HeidelbergCement group of the German billionaire Ludwig Merkle (430th in the list of the richest people in the world according to FORBES with a fortune of $6.2 billion), and demanded that their shares be arrested, since the assets were recorded on the company "from unfriendly state." The lawsuit was placed in the file of arbitration cases, and RTVI was the first to pay attention to it.

In particular, they demanded that 100% of the shares in the authorized capital of LLC HeidelbergCement Rus, the shares of JSC Raw Materials Company and JSC Shale Cement Plant Tsesla be turned in favor of RUSSIA, and that 50% of the shares of JSC Gurovo- Concrete". At the same time, the prosecutor's office demanded to seize the shares of companies controlled by HeidelbergCement and to prohibit making any changes to the register of shareholders, as well as to perform any actions aimed at alienating property.

In the justification, the prosecutor noted that HeidelbergCement “may take actions aimed at withdrawing the property complex of controlled enterprises, their sale to third parties, which will lead to a stop in technological cycles, a reduction in production capacity, and the creation of an artificial shortage of manufactured products on the market.”

“In order to avoid impeding the execution of a judicial act (if the claim is satisfied), as well as to prevent causing significant damage, the arbitration court satisfies the application for interim measures,” the court ruling says.

The Russian division of HeidelbergCement Rus supplies cement, crushed stone and mineral powder and operates three cement plants with a total capacity of 4.6 million tons. The company's net profit for 2022 is 4.5 billion rubles.

Raw Materials Company came into the spotlight in the summer of 2020. Then more than three thousand people came out to protest against deforestation on the natural monument Mount Kushtau, where the Raw Materials Company, part of the Bashkir Soda Company, planned to develop a soda deposit. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, HeidelbergCement Rus owns almost 280,000 shares of the company, each with a par value of 1,000 rubles.

The Slantsy Cement Plant Tsesla was built in the 1960s and acquired by the Heidelberg Group in 2001. It was part of the technological chain for the production of shale oil , but in recent years it has specialized in the production of cement. The net loss of the plant at the end of 2022 amounted to 194 million rubles.

Cement plant "Gurovo-Beton" in equal shares belongs to HeidelbergCement and its Russian "daughter". The company's net profit for 2022 amounted to RUB 63.5 million.