12:21 21.09.2016

Creditors committee, liquidator of Okean shipyard waiting for unblocking of shipyard sale

3 min read

KYIV. Sept 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The committee of creditors and liquidation of public joint-stock company Mykolaiv Shipyard Okean are convinced in the legal invalidity of the court ruling to arrest property of the enterprise under liquidation. They are waiting for the quick unblocking of the shipyard by the appeal court. The shipyard is being prepared for sale.

Okean Shipyard liquidator Iryna Serbin said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday that she learned about the decision of Kyiv's Pechersky District Court to arrest the shipyard's property and transfer it for secure storage by chance and she was shocked.

"No law and the criminal and procedural code do not foresee secure storage. The property under bankruptcy procedure has a special legal status. It is not permitted to arrest it or impose encumbrance. Any actions with property are possible only under the decision of the court that hears the bankruptcy case. In our case this is the business court of Mykolaiv region," she said.

Serbin said that by its decision Pechersky District Court placed all the parties into a collision: according to Ukrainian law, the liquidator is responsible for the property of the bankrupt company. It is shocking that the property was transferred to secure storage to a person who forced bankruptcy of the shipyard, she said.

"I believe that this decision is invalid and not meeting the law on restoring solvency of debtors or declaring them bankrupt," the liquidator said.

Serbin said that the decision of Kyiv's Pechersky District Court has been challenged in Kyiv's appeal court. She is waiting for the quick annulment of the decision by the appeal court to sell the property of Okean Shipyard at an open auction.

Head of the committee of creditors Ihor Voloshyn expressed perplex over the position of Ukrainian law enforcers and courts to the situation around the shipyard in the conditions of new threats and challenges Ukraine faces today.

Voloshyn said that former managers of Okean shipyard who received its property for secure storage are affiliated with the structures under control of former Energy Minister of Russia Igor Yusufov: offshore companies Olympus Investments and Zonel Operations Ltd. He said that the decision of Pechersky District Court opens a possibility of retaining control over the enterprise and blocking development of Ukrainian shipbuilding industry for interested persons with a Russian trace.

"I do not understand the logics [of Ukrainian officials] in the current political situation," he said.

Voloshyn backs the solving of the situation around the shipyard under Ukrainian law. The shipyard could be sold at an auction.

"We invite all interested sides to take part in the open auction with the starting price of UAH 1.8 billion [the total debt of the shipyard]. We believe this is fair," he said.

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