Court allows UniCredit to buy Kazakh unit stock

ALMATY, March 13 (Reuters) - A Kazakh court has cancelled its prior ruling barring UniCredit (CRDI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) from dealing in the shares of its Kazakh unit ATF Bank -- a small initial win for the Italian bank in a legal battle with an ATF minority shareholder.

A court in the financial capital Almaty said in a ruling posted on the Kazakh stock exchange Web site on Thursday that it issued the new decision last week. The ruling paves the way for a planned capital injection.

UniCredit bought a 92 percent stake in ATF ATFB.KZ , Kazakhstan's number-five bank, for $2.1 billion last year, paying $84 per ordinary share and $47 for each preferred share.

U.S. hedge fund QVT, which holds some preferred stock, sued UniCredit at the end of last year demanding equal valuation for both types of shares.

It also asked a court in Almaty to bar UniCredit from dealing in ATF shares. The court initially supported QVT and issued a ruling enforcing the ban last December.

This has prevented UniCredit from buying out the remaining shares of ATF from other minority stakeholders and boosting its capital in order to support further growth.

But the court overturned its own ruling at UniCredit's request. A lawyer for UniCredit told the court "a delay in cancelling the ban could cause significant damage" to the bank,

Last week the same court barred ATF from using UniCredit's name and logo in its ads. There have been no developments on that ruling so far. (Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Quentin Bryar)