MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian conglomerate Sistema said on Monday it had run into a second technical default on its credit due to an asset freeze as part of its legal dispute with oil firm Rosneft, but said it did not expect further defaults.
A court earlier froze a part of Sistema's stake in mobile operator MTS as well as its shares in the Medsi clinic chain and Bashkirian Power Grid Company while hearing a more than $2 billion damage claim filed by Rosneft.
The technical default was on credit obligations amounting to the equivalent of 8.9 billion roubles ($152 million), Sistema said without specifying what those debt instruments were.
A technical default occurs when some conditions on credit facilities are breached. Creditors can demand early repayment.
Last month, the firm ran into a technical default on 3.9 billion roubles of loans although the company said it did not expect creditors to demand early repayment.
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The asset freeze is not expected to trigger any more defaults, Sistema said on Monday.
"The corporation's remaining loan agreements do not contain a condition whereby this arrest of shares will lead to a technical default," Sistema said in a statement.
Sistema, which said it continued to service its financial obligations in full, also said it had asked lenders to provide waivers in connection with the latest technical default.
($1 = 58.5373 roubles)
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Edmund Blair)
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