Ukrainian court allows executing in Ukraine ruling of Russian judge to recover debt in favor of Russian oligarch

The State Property Fund has appealed the move in the cassation instance.

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The Appeal Court of Ukraine's Zaporizhia region allowed execution in the territory of Ukraine of the decision of the Arbitration Court of Russia's Krasnoyarsk Territory in the case of recovery from Zaporizhia Aluminum Production Plant (ZAPP) of its debt in favor of the company, affiliated with the former owner, Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, according to Dmitry Lobikov, the company CEO.

"The appellate instance overruled the decision of the first instance court and judged in favor of the affiliated company, Rusal. That is, the Russians received executive documents to recover funds from our enterprise. This is a precedent, a very bad one," Lobikov told a meeting of the Special Commission of the Verkhovna Rada on Privatization.

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He added that the enterprise had appealed to the Prosecutor's Office of Zaporizhia region to file a cassation on the decision, to which the regional prosecutor replied that he had transferred this right to the State Property Fund of Ukraine.

Representatives of the State Property Fund, who attended the meeting of the special commission, reported that they had appealed the decision of the Appeal Court of Zaporizhia region in the cassation instance.

As UNIAN reported, the State Property Fund in October last year estimated the starting price of a 68% stake in Zaporizhia Aluminum Production Plant at UAH 278.4 million, but the sale will be held in accordance with the new privatization law, with the starting price of the facility reduced to UAH 105.878 million.

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The state stake in the company's shares will be sold as an object of small-scale privatization on an electronic platform.

UNIAN memo. Zaporizhia Aluminum Production Plant was previously the only manufacturer of primary aluminum in Ukraine with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year. In April 2011, the plant began to complete the conservation of the remaining capacity of the electrolysis plant and announced the discontinuation of primary aluminum production due to its unprofitability, in particular, due to high electricity tariffs.

At present, aluminum production capacities at the plant are conserved and primary aluminum is not being produced.

In 2014-2015, the state, with the help of the courts, regained control over 68.01% of the combine's shares. The reason for the return of shares to state ownership was that the previous owner of the stake, the Russian company Rusal, brought the enterprise to a poor state and failed to fulfill its investment obligations.

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