Cases
Mriya bondholders demand debt acknowledgement
Eurobond holders of agricultural holding Mriya have brought a suit at the Ternopil Economic Court to recover debt on securities from guarantors.
BNY Mellon Corporate Trustee Services Limited, a trust company, is acting as plaintiff and in the interests of all Eurobond holders. The action itself concerns guarantees of 68 Mriya companies on overdue debt commitments of their holding — Mriya Agro Holding PLC (Cyprus) in the amount of USD 573 million (about UAH 15 billion), which consist of an outstanding loan amount and interest from August 2014, when the company announced a default on Eurobonds. The action was brought at the location of companies-defendants with the largest assets.
This is the first case in the history of Ukraine that Eurobond holders have brought an action to a Ukrainian court to recover debt on Eurobonds from guarantors — subsidiaries of the holding.
A reminder that in August 2014, Mriya could not settle with creditors under current liabilities and defaulted. The aggregate debt of the agricultural holding, taking into account guarantees and sureties granted by Mriya companies affiliated with the Gut family (former owners) at the time of default amounted to USD 1.3 billion.
From February 2015 control over Mriya assets was transferred to its creditors — mainly to European and American investors — who decided to keep the agricultural holding. At the same time, new management of the agricultural holding was appointed.
Amsterdam Court rules to return Scythian gold to Ukraine
The Amsterdam District Court has ruled that the collection of Scythian gold from Crimean museums, which was exhibited at the Allard Pierson Museum, should be returned to Ukraine, but not to Crimea, which remains occupied by Russia.
The Court made this ruling on the basis of the UNESCO Convention, according to which a work of art must be returned to the sovereign state that provided such a work for temporary exhibition.
Four Crimean museums went to the court demanding that the exhibits be returned. The judges rejected their demand as Crimea is not a sovereign state.
However, the court decision does not mean that the valuables shall immediately return to Ukraine. The judges decided that the gold will remain in the Allard Pierson Museum for another three months — the period allowed for appeal. Even before the verdict, both parties stated their intention to appeal against the decision if it is not in their favor.
A reminder that in February 2014 a collection of Scythian gold was moved to Amsterdam to participate in the “Crimea: gold and secrets of the Black Sea” exhibition, which was held at the Pierson Museum.
Gazprom set to challenge fine running into billions imposed by AMCU
Russian energy company Gazprom has lodged an appeal to the Kiev Economic Court of Appeal against the ruling of the Economic Court of Kiev of 5 December 2016, which sustained a claim by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and ruled to recover fines and penalties totaling UAH 172 billion from Gazprom.
The AMCU’s decision to impose a fine was sent to Gazprom on 12 February 2016. On 12 April 2016 Gazprom filed a lawsuit to the Economic Court of Kiev to invalidate this decision of the AMCU. On 13 April the court returned the claim without consideration. On 18 May the Kiev Economic Court of Appeal upheld this ruling of the Economic Court of Kiev; the same decision was confirmed by the Supreme Economic Court on 13 July.
On 13 September the Supreme Court of Ukraine refused Gazprom in admission of this claim to its legal procedure.
Odebrecht pays largest fine in history for corruption
Brazilian construction company Odebrecht is set to pay the largest fine in history for corruption to the authorities of three countries.
The company will have to pay a fine ranging from USD 2.6 to 4.5 billion to the authorities of Brazil, the United States and Switzerland. Brazilian prosecutors believe that the company will be paying out the fine over a period of 23 years.
The claim against Odebrecht was filed by the United States Department of Justice in accordance with the law prohibiting bribery of foreign officials.
According to court materials, for the last 15 years the company paid about USD 800 million of bribes within the framework of more than 100 projects in 12 countries, including Angola, Venezuela and Mexico. As a result of corruption schemes, the company earned USD 3.34 billion.
Odebrecht, which is the largest construction company in Latin America, was the leading company in a construction cartel, whose members paid bribes to Brazilian politicians and top managers of the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras in exchange for the conclusion of contracts.
The corruption case in Petrobras has been under investigation since 2014. In March 2016 court sentenced former Odebrecht CEO Marcel Odebrecht to 19 years in prison on charges of corruption and money laundering.
European Court of Justice suspended decision to expand Gazprom access to OPAL
The European Court of Justice has suspended the decision of the European Commission to increase PJSC Gazprom access to OPAL pipeline, one of Nord Stream’s taps.
At the end of October 2016 the European Commission approved the expansion of Gazprom’s access to the OPAL pipeline, more particularly, to 25.6 billion cubic meters of its transit capacity. The exclusive right of the Russian holding to use 50% of this capacity, that is 12.8 billion cubic meters, remained in force. Moreover, the EC allowed Gazprom to take part in auctions for a further 40% of OPAL’s distributable capacity, though it specified that it should offer a “base price, not exceeding the average cost of comparable capacities of other pipelines”.
A reminder that on 5 December 2016 it was reported that a trading subsidiary of Polish energy company PGNIG filed a lawsuit to the European Court of Justice against the decision adopted by the European Commission to extend Gazprom’s access to the OPAL pipeline.
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