Translated material
The elusive "Moskvich"
The absence of the bankruptcy trustee was the reason that the package of documents from Mirax Group was submitted at the last minute. “We hoped until the very last minute that Mr. Ivanov would still appear at the office of the Federal Stock Corporation (auction organizer - Ed. ),” noted Mr. Temnikov. “Alas, this did not happen, and now the organizers of the competition formally have every reason to remove our corporation from the auction.” Due to fears that in the absence of the bankruptcy trustee’s signature, the corporation could lose the deposit (more than 1 billion rubles), the corporation withdrew it. “We are afraid that those participants who transferred the deposit but do not win the auction will find it very difficult or even impossible to get it back - after all, the funds are transferred to the accounts of a bankrupt company, operations on which are actually frozen,” says the deputy chairman of the board Mirax Group Andrey Kletsko.
As you know, after Moskvich OJSC was declared bankrupt at the end of February this year, management of it was transferred through the court to a bankruptcy trustee, and a decision was made to sell off the company’s property to pay off debts. Prior to this, the enterprise had external management, which was introduced in January 2004. At the time Moskvich was declared bankrupt, its total accounts payable exceeded 23 billion rubles, by which time the enterprise had been idle for four years. At the end of October, the bankruptcy trustee officially announced the auction. Its main lot included 54 “non-residential buildings” located on an area of more than 750 thousand square meters. The starting price for this object was set at 5.507 billion rubles, a fifth of which was to be paid by applicants for participation as a deposit. Auction step - 2 million rubles. The deadline for submitting documents was November 29.
“And on the fourth (December - Ed. ) our representatives will definitely come to the address of the auction and try to use their right to take part in the auction,” says Mr. Temnikov. At the same time, Mirax expresses serious concern that “the absence of a deposit agreement signed by the bankruptcy trustee could be used by the auction organizers as a formal reason to exclude Mirax from participating in the auction,” says Mr. Kletsko.
In order to protect itself from possible exclusion from participation in the auction for Moskvich’s property, Mirax Group intends, in the days remaining before the competition, to push through the court to postpone its date to a later date. If this comes true, the company still expects to meet with Mr. Ivanov and get his signature on the deposit agreement. In addition, Mirax does not exclude the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the auction organizers, due to whose actions it was unable to submit an application in full compliance with the requirements of the terms of the announced competition. In the same case, if the company is not allowed to participate in the auction, it will seek through the court to have its results cancelled.
The company fears that if it and other major players are ousted from participating in the auction, its holding will be “non-competitive”, and the property will simply go to speculators, who will subsequently resell it in parts to small developers, which Mirax considers inappropriate from both the point of view the benefits of Moskvich, and from the point of view of the future appearance of the territory of the object being sold.
Mirax is supported by the head of the Association of Builders of Russia Nikolai Koshman, who came to yesterday's press conference. He is perplexed why the auction organizers create obstacles for those wishing to participate in it on a legitimate basis. “Apparently,” he reflects, “there is some kind of game going on (on the part of the auction organizers - Ed. ), in which such large developers as Mirax are undesirable to enter.”