KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's PrivatBank said on Saturday it had appealed a London court decision to reject a claim against its former owners.
Ukrainian authorities say they have spent nearly $6 billion (4.7 billion pounds) since they nationalised PrivatBank in 2016 in a bid to protect customer deposits, part of a clean-up of the country's banking system which was backed by the International Monetary Fund.
But in a setback to the state-owned bank's efforts to claw back about $2 billion it says was lost to fraud, a London court ruled in early December that it had no jurisdiction in a case against its two former main shareholders, Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov, who both deny any wrongdoing.
"PrivatBank has today filed papers with the Court of Appeal of England and Wales appealing the judgement of the Mr Justice Fancourt dated 4 December 2018," PrivatBank said.
"PrivatBank looks forward to the Court of Appeal considering this matter in due course, and remains confident in its position," it added in a statement.
Recovering some of the PrivatBank money would help shore up Ukraine's finances as it enters an election period next year.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Editing by Alexander Smith)
