Smolny’s claims against Metrostroy reached 5.5 billion rubles. Commented by Konstantin Ivanchin for Vedomosti – St. Petersburg

Transport Construction Directorate (subordinate institution of the Committee for Transport Infrastructure Development of St. Petersburg, CTID) on October 26 sent an application to the official receiver of Metrostroy for inclusion of debts amounted to 1,973 billion rubles into the creditors’ register. The document is posted on the website of the unified federal register of bankruptcy information. In its another application, the Directorate demands to refund 422.7 million rubles of penalty. Another major creditor of Metrostroy from Smolny, St. Petersburg Construction Committee, asserted claims for 3.075 billion rubles. Thus, Smolny is waiting for repayment of debts for 5.5 billion rubles.

Metrostroy was declared bankrupt by the award of the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region on August 31. On September 3 the judicial act declaring the debtor bankrupt was published. Konstantin Ivanchin, a partner of Inmar Legal Ltd, explained to Vedomosti that after that the creditors had two months to file their claims for inclusion into the register.

Now the creditors’ register includes debts in the amount of about 7 billion rubles, says Ivanchin. “At the same time, a great number of claims have not yet been considered by the court, therefore the said amount of claims will increase even more, the lawyer explains. The press service of the Construction Committee, for example, reports that one of the applications is scheduled to be considered by the court only on December 14.

One of the major creditors of Metrostroy is Metrostroy Severnoy Stolitsy (Metrostroy of the Northern Capital) (65% of shares are owned by Smolny). MSS took upon itself the right to claim under loans of Rossiya Bank amounting to 3.3 billion rubles and Task Company amounting to 392 million rubles (totally, 3.7 billion rubles). Ivanchin reminded that the bankruptcy law gives equal rights to all creditors, but “majorities” have an opportunity to influence the decisions of the creditors’ meetings.

“These are decisions on approval of actions of the bankruptcy commissioner, on approval of a procedure of sale of the debtor’s property, on contestation of the debtor’s transactions, etc., which, besides the point, do not always reflect the interests of all of the debtor’s creditors” says the lawyer. In addition, creditors whose claims exceed 10% of all claims can initiate a contest of the debtor’s transactions on their own, rather than through a bankruptcy commissioner.