Nynas AB is a company that was founded under Swedish law as an entity engaged in the oil industry business; its activities initially focused on the production of oil and diesel, as well as bitumen, an important component for the production of asphalt. Nynas was owned and managed by PDV Europa, part of the PDVSA group of companies (50.001%), and the Finnish company Neste Oil (49.999%).
In 2017, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and those entities in which it exercised control or owned at least 50% of the shares, was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for theAs a result, the company Nynas was covered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), through Executive Order 13,808. As a consequence, the company Nynas was covered by the scope of such sanctions, being prohibited from obtaining financing for periods longer than ninety (90) days and from issuing new debts.
In 2019 PDVSA was included by OFAC in the list of Specially Designated Nationals or Persons. (SDN -Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List-), barring him from using the U.S. financial system, which aggravated Nynas' business operations.
Sanctions and the company Nynas
The aforementioned impact of the OFAC sanctions resulted in the company Nynas to initiate a restructuring plan in the shareholding structure, as well as the adoption of financial strategies to withstand the delay in the payment of debt with its creditors.
In December 2019, the Nynas company requested such restructuring before the competent Courts in Sweden, in order to achieve changes in its shareholding component that would allow them to mitigate the impact of the sanctions imposed by OFAC; this implied the reduction of PDV Europe's and ultimately PDVSA's participation in the company's shareholding structure.
Since the beginning of 2020, Nynas has begun to implement the changes proposed As part of the strategy, the measures were proposed and submitted to OFAC to obtain its approval and thus be able to eliminate the sanctions.
The purpose of the restructuring undertaken by Nynas was to reduce PDVSA's percentage of participation and control to below 50%, retaining a 15% and incorporating an independent Foundation of Swedish origin, who now owns a 35%.
As a consequence of the foregoing, on May 12, 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department finally resolved to allow U.S. persons or entities to The Nynas company may engage in commercial operations and transactions without the express authorization of the OFAC. In addition, Nynas agreed to file periodic reports with OFAC regarding any future changes in shareholders or Board of Directors while PDVSA remains on the SDN list.
At Alan Aldana & Abogados, we have a specialized team to advise on energy and sanctioning matters.
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