PRESS RELEASE: Majority shareholder in Ukraina shopping mall claims state authorities systematically violating law

Kyiv, 7 December 2011. Today the Kyiv City Commercial Court held hearings in cases filed by a minority shareholder against the public company "Univermag "Ukraina", specifically in the cases No. 62/175 and No. 62/185 (in both cases the judge is M. O. Lyubchenko). This is the fourth and fifth analogous case initiated during the past month. As in the previous cases, the hearings on these ones have been postponed to a later date. We realize that this surge of the minority shareholders' appeals to the court is caused by the efforts of certain persons to obstruct QHS' control over the company, but we will do everything within the law to protect our property right to this asset," stated the representatives of Quinn Holdings Sweden AB (QHS), the majority shareholder of the Ukraina shopping mall. The lawsuit in case No. 62/175 was filed on November 21, 2011 by a minority shareholder of the Ukraina shopping mall who owns one share. In the application the shareholder requests that the court annul a decision of a general meeting of shareholders' held on November 7, 2011. On November 22, 2011, the judge, acting on the basis of the application of the minority shareholder for provisional measures, issued an order prohibiting the making of amendments to the unified state registry of companies and private entrepreneurs in accordance with the decisions of the general meeting of shareholders of the mall held on November 7, 2011. In case No. 62/185 the same minority shareholder challenged a decision of a general meeting of the mall's shareholders held on November 28 of the current year. The lawsuit was filed on the day of this general meeting of shareholders. The next day the judge issued a provisional remedy order similar to the one handed down in case No. 62/175. In addition, on November 21, 2011, this minority shareholder instigated another case - No. 51/515 (Judge: A.B. Pryhunova) - contesting the decisions of the general meeting of shareholders - namely the meeting that took place on November 18, 2011. In this case a provisional remedy was granted too. The last hearing in this case was held on December 5, 2011. The applicant did not attend the hearing. On the basis of the fact that the claimant did not provide certain documents the judge rescheduled the hearing of the case to December 20, 2011. According to the lawyers representing QHS, the texts of the lawsuits No. 62/175, No. 62/185 and No. 51/515 have numerous passages identical to the lawsuits filed earlier by other two minority shareholders (cases No. 57/409 and No. 25/207), which concerned the request to nullify the decisions of the general meetings of shareholders of the Ukraina shopping mall of November 1, 2011 (which in fact never took place) and of November 7, 2011. As reported earlier, the lawsuits in the cases No. 57/409 (Judge: O.V. Gulevets) and No. 25/207 (Judge: S.M. Morozov) were filed on behalf, but without the consent of, these minority shareholders. In both cases the judges ordered provisional remedies that blocked the making of amendments in the state registry in accordance with the decisions of the general meetings of shareholders of the mall. Upon learning that the lawsuits had been filed on their behalf, the respective minority shareholders cancelled the powers of attorney issued to the persons representing them in court, withdrew the applications and renounced the provisional remedies. In case No. 57/409 the judge had already reversed the provisional remedy and terminated the proceedings, while the proceedings in the case No. 25/207 are still ongoing. The last hearing was scheduled for December 2, 2011, but did not take place due to the illness of the judge. At the moment, the date of the next hearing is unknown. "All of the lawsuits from various minority shareholders have one aim – to prohibit the registration of new administrative bodies, and hence restrict the majority shareholders from exercising their legal rights. We are wondering why the court so swiftly accepts claims from all minority shareholders and issues provisional remedy orders. At the same time, when a plaintiff withdraws their complaint the closing of the case gets postponed for several weeks," said the QHS legal representative. There have been other lawsuits initiated against the majority shareholder QHS and the state bank of Ireland IBRC, whose financial resources were used to purchase shares of the Ukraina shopping mall. As a result of the respective decisions of the Kyiv City Commercial Court all shares of the majority stakeholder (almost 93% of shares at an estimated value of tens of millions of U.S. dollars) have been put under arrest. IBRC, on the other hand, has been forbidden to exercise its rights under the mortgage agreement with regards to the building of the Ukraina shopping mall and recover the building as debt. The issue of the Ukraina shopping mall has been covered by the Financial Times and other significant business publications in Ireland. Quinn Holdings Sweden AB was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Stockholm. Quinn Holdings Sweden AB (QHS) is the majority shareholder of PAT Univermag Ukraina, a publicly held company in Kyiv, Ukraine. Currently holding nearly 93% of the company's stock, QHS is acting to exercise its lawful right to participate in managing the company and is calling for a change in the current management of the shopping center, with whom there have been serious misunderstandings on the part of the shareholder. IBRC (Irish Bank Resolution Corporation) is a financial institution that is fully owned by the Republic of Ireland and thus, indirectly, by all Irish taxpayers. Prior to a name change on October 14, 2011, IBRC was known as the Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Limited. Founded in 1964 in Dublin, the company continues to have its headquarters there today, with offices in other cities in Ireland and the UK, and representative offices in Boston and New York. At the moment, the bank is being forced to actively assert its rights and lawful interests in the suits that have been initiated very recently in the Commercial Court of the City of Kyiv with the purpose of removing encumbrances on assets that have been placed under lien in the bank's favor. For additional information, contact: Oleksiy Syvak, Senior Advisor, CFC Consulting (+38044) 492-7599 or [email protected]
The press release has been issued on commercial terms. The Interfax-Ukraine News Agency is not responsible for its contents.