Protecting the interests of the state, Ukreximbank did not allow the sale of state property for nothing
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In June 2023, the logistics complex of Ice Terminal LLC, which was mortgaged to Ukreximbank, was sold for the market price of UAH 404 million.
Ice Terminal is a complex for processing and storing fish in the Brovar district of the Kyiv region, which began its operations in 2009 and was positioned as one of the best in Ukraine: 24.4 thousand square meters. m are located on more than 26 hectares of land, equipped with road and railway entrances, professional freezing equipment and modern production lines.
The complex was mortgaged to Ukreximbank by its owner Ice Terminal LLC on a loan from another related company – International Seafood Group LLC.
Beneficial owner of both companies according to public data is Yuri Osmak (Flagman Seafood Group). In 2015, the borrower stopped servicing the loan, after which he and the mortgagor were declared bankrupt and liquidation procedures were opened.
Unscrupulous borrowers will be less and less able to enrich themselves at the expense of the state
The case of “Ice Terminal” is another demonstrative proof that unscrupulous borrowers will less and less succeed in enriching themselves at the expense of the state, using well-known schemes of evading the return of loans, in particular to state banks.
“Borrowers should be aware that the level of efficiency of management and departments dealing with problem loans of state banks is many times higher today than 5-10 years ago.
State banks use all legal and modern tools to counter deliberate steps aimed at non-repayment of loans or harming the state, including through the organization of the sale of mortgaged property for nothing,” commented Anatoliy Lola, Director of the Collection Department.
The share of non-performing loans (NPLs) of the banking system is expected to rise due to full-scale war. As of August 1, 2023, it amounted to 39.3% or about UAH 430 billion).
“It is absolutely unacceptable that the banking system, which must meet and respond to the challenges of wartime, through criminal schemes and illegal actions, is bled to death by unscrupulous borrowers who do not service their financial obligations not because they cannot, but because they seek to enrich themselves for the creditor’s account, in particular the state,” said Anatoliy Lola.
As a result of the work carried out to cancel illegal auctions, the mortgaged property of the state-owned Ukreximbank was resold for UAH 404 million, which is 15 times more than the sale price of the same property in 2019.
Chronology of events
As required by law, in the liquidation procedure of Ice Terminal LLC in 2019, an auction for the sale of the complex was announced.
To minimize the risk of selling the complex for nothing, Ukreximbank entered the auction as one of the participants and paid a guarantee fee. However, neither representatives of the state bank nor other potential buyers were allowed into the premises where the auction was held, organized by the Commodity Exchange “Ukrainian Specialized Forest Exchange”.
We will remind that in 2019, the auctions were held live, not through electronic platforms, and as a result, at this “auction” the complex was sold for only UAH 28 million.
Ukreximbank immediately turned to the court with a demand to declare the results of the auction invalid. In the following two years, the debtors actively opposed the bank by all known methods: making changes to the state register; the appointment of the liquidator of “Ice Terminal” LLC, which did not take the actions prescribed by law to protect the interests of creditors; opposition in open criminal proceedings.
From 2021, Ukreximbank will use an external contractor – the ADHOC Bar Association – to represent the Bank’s interests in the Ice Terminal case in court.
The external legal advisor cooperates with the Bank on the terms of a “success fee”. This is one of the most modern approaches to cooperation with trial lawyers in the world.
Understanding that legal processes can be numerous and long-lasting, the Bank chose this format of cooperation in order to be able to pay for the result, not for the process, and to use the Bank’s financial resources as sparingly as possible.
Under the terms of the “success fee”, the Bank pays the legal firm’s fee only if the case is resolved in favor of the Bank and after the funds have been credited to the Bank.
In October 2022, the court ruled in favor of JSC “Ukreximbank” – the auction held in 2019 was canceled, which was confirmed by the Resolution of the highest court of Ukraine – the Supreme Court.
In February 2023, D.V. Tkachenko was removed from the duties of the liquidator of Ice Terminal LLC, who, among other things, transferred the complex to a third party for free use.
Demchan O.I., the arbitration manager, was appointed to replace the liquidator, who was supposed to ensure a fair and transparent sale of the debtor’s property on market terms.
“It should be noted that the given example of the sale of property in 2019 at an undervalued price for Ice Terminal was popular among bankrupt debtors, so the state-owned Ukreximbank still disputes the results of such auctions. The loudest among them, along with the case of Ice Terminal LLC, are also the cases of Kharkiv LLC Nadra” and PJSC “Blitz-Inform”.
“Today we see that work with unscrupulous debtors has become more effective, but imperfect regulation of bankruptcy procedures allows debtors to avoid fulfilling their obligations to creditors for years.
The efficiency of working with NPL can be significantly increased by implementation of changes in bankruptcy procedures. Therefore, Ukreximbank during the round table Financial Club, held in June, formulated 12 urgent changes to bankruptcy procedures that will help state banks recover debts for non-performing loans.
Also recently, the Association of Ukrainian Banks held a round tableduring which attention was focused on the analysis of the main shortcomings of bankruptcy procedures for creditors and problems related to the practical implementation of the norms of the Code of Ukraine on bankruptcy procedures.
It is the improvement of the regulatory regulation of bankruptcy that will give an opportunity not only to increase the percentage of NPL returns to banks, but also to improve Ukraine’s investment attractiveness,” said the Bank’s Board Member Dmytro Kaplyuk.
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