Namesakes quarreled in Kuzbass - OAO Sokolovskoye is trying to bankrupt an investment company with the same name through the courts, which, according to the plaintiff, illegally uses the equipment of the OAO and extracts coal for $40 million. The debt for this equipment served as the reason for introducing external management at OAO Sokolovskoye, which was previously managed by the founders of the investment company.

By order of the government No. 452-r of March 23, 1996, mining equipment, unique for Russia and worth $30 million for coal mining in mine No. 7 in the Prokopyevsk district of the Kemerovo region, was purchased from the British company Joy Mining Machinery Ltd using funds from the state budget and OAO Sokolovskoye, controlled by the state. In OAO Sokolovskoye, 55% belongs to the state, about 45% belongs to IK Sokolovskaya, formed by former managers of the OAO. In April 2002, the Arbitration Court of the Kemerovo Region introduced temporary supervision in OAO Sokolovskoye, and in June 2002 - external management. The main creditor of OAO is the state represented by the Ministry of Finance and Vnesheconombank, to which OAO owes 760 million rubles to repay a state loan for the purchase of equipment. The equipment under the joint activity agreement is operated by the Sokolovskaya Investment Company, which mined 4.6 million tons of coal in 2001, about 60% of which was exported. The amount of the investment company's profit is not disclosed, but it is known that in addition to coal mining, Sokolovskaya is also involved in a related business - it finances the construction of a coal port in Ust-Luga (Leningrad Region).

OAO Sokolovskoye has filed a claim with the Kemerovo Region Arbitration Court demanding that its investment company Sokolovskaya be declared bankrupt. Arkady Cherkasov, the external manager of OAO Sokolovskoye, told Vedomosti that the investment company is illegally using expensive equipment, for which the OAO, which purchased it with a state loan, still owes 760 million rubles. According to him, the joint activity agreement between the investment company and the OAO was concluded in January 2001, when these organizations had friendly management. Subsequently, according to Cherkasov, the proceeds began to settle in the investment company, and all the debts were left hanging over the OAO. The external manager emphasizes that the joint activity agreement was limited to the development of shaft No. 7, which has already been completed, and now the investment company is illegally using the OAO's equipment at its own mines (the former managers of Sokolovskoye issued licenses from the Ministry of Natural Resources specifically to the investment company). According to him, on October 30, the OJSC applied to the Arbitration Court of the Kemerovo Region with a demand to declare the Sokolovskaya Investment Company bankrupt on the grounds that the investment company had not transferred to the OJSC about 26 million rubles of profit due to it from joint activities under the agreement. At the same time, the OJSC already has a decision from one of the country's arbitration courts confirming the existence of this debt.

A source close to Vnesheconombank (agent for state debt) says that the ultimate goal of the state as the controlling shareholder of OAO Sokolovskoye is to return the equipment to the OAO for the purpose of further sale of the company as a single production complex through open bidding or concluding a settlement agreement with creditors. In this case, it will be possible to return the "frozen" money to the budget, and bring an effective owner to the enterprise. The head of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service Tatyana Trefilova also writes in an appeal to the Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev that it is unacceptable to bring Sokolovskoye to bankruptcy proceedings. The fact is that in this case, the money will not be received by the state (a creditor of the fourth and fifth priority), but by the same IK Sokolovskaya, whose structures, while the IK and OAO had common management, managed to become large creditors of OAO. Meanwhile, the vice-president of the investment company Sokolovskaya Vladimir Dobrydin rejects the accusations of his opponents. According to him, Sokolovskaya is fulfilling all its obligations and is not afraid of attempts by certain unscrupulous officials to redistribute the coal business. Meanwhile, the president of SUEK Baikal-Ugol Oleg Miserva calls the situation with the property of Sokolovskaya confusing and ambiguous, but notes that if there is clarity from a legal point of view, this mine may be of interest to large coal holdings.

Bankrupt bankrupts namesake