Two of Russia’s biggest transport companies have warned there is a high risk they won’t be able to recover tens of millions of dollars frozen in Cyprus banks, among the first companies to quantify their exposure in the wake of a sweeping restructuring of the nation’s banks.

OAO Sovcomflot, Russia’s biggest shipping group, said it has $25.8 million frozen in Cyprus’s Popular Bank, also known as Laiki Bank.

“There is significant risk a large part of these funds will not be recoverable and for the immediate future are blocked and not accessible,” OAO Sovcomflot, which has yearly revenue of $1.4 billion, said in its annual earnings statement late Friday.

Russian auto maker AvtoVAZ also said in its earnings late Friday it may have 641 million rubles ($20.5 million) frozen in Cypriot banks—around 40% of the company’s profit from operations in 2012—and it is unclear how much it will be able to recover.

Sovcomflot, the world’s fourth-largest tanker operator in terms of tonnage, and AvtoVAZ, whose controlling shareholders are French auto maker Renault SA and alliance partner Nissan Motor Co., are believed to be among dozens of companies facing losses from their exposure to the Mediterranean island. Depositors with more than €100,000 ($131,000) at Laiki Bank, face steep cuts of at least 80% after the Cypriot government decided to shut down the bank and merge its healthy assets with Bank of Cyprus in return for a €10 billion bailout from international creditors. Similar depositors at Bank of Cyprus face a minimum 60% cut in their deposits.

Cyprus, with its low tax environment, was traditionally a base for international shippers and exporters. Russian depositors are believed to hold close to €20 billion in Cypriot banks while almost 40% of total bank deposits are controlled by non-Cypriots, according to Cypriot government officials. Most of Russia’s financial institutions previously opened subsidiaries in Cyprus, but the Cypriot banking system also developed a reputation as a haven for money laundering.

In late March Cyprus became the first euro-zone country to impose capital controls to prevent a collapse of its banking sector as it sought to secure the bailout from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, known as the troika.

Sovcomflot, better known as SCF, operates 158 vessels. The St. Petersburg-based company said it has taken action to manage relationships and flows of funds with creditors, crews, employees and charterers affected by the frozen accounts, adding that it doesn’t expect a significant impact on its ability to operate its business and meet obligations.

A London-based Sovcomflot spokesman declined to comment further on the issue Monday.

AvtoVAZ said in its 2012 earnings report that its funds were held in accounts belonging to the company’s export subsidiary, Lada International Ltd. which is based in Cyprus. It didn’t specify in which bank its money was held.

Wall Street journal