Belvedere Group challenges auction to sell its corporate rights in Ukraine
France’s Belvedere Group is challenging the ruling of the business court of Kyiv after an auction which resulted in the sale of corporate rights in security for the company at the low price.
“Today [March 16] a hearing of the court of appeals was held, and it will continue on Wednesday, March 18. Belvedere will challenge the results of the auction and the closure of a case on bankruptcy of Belvedere Ukraine LLC,” the company’s press service has told Interfax-Ukraine.
The press service said that Belvedere Ukraine LLC did not pay a debt worth UAH 65 million to several companies, including UAH 54 million of debt to the parent company Belvedere Group, UAH 9.7 million to Rafinad-Media LLC and about UAH 1.6 million to Creative-Boutique LLC. Later, Rafinad-Media initiated the bankruptcy of Belvedere Ukraine. The procedure to liquidate the company has been launched.
“In October 2014 there were two attempts to hold an auction as a part of the bankruptcy case, although the auction was not held due to absence of bidders. Later the repeated auction was held with the possibility of cutting the primary cost of the assets,” the press service said.
Avigal LLC won the auction and received corporate rights to Italiano v Ukraine LLC and Boisson Elite LLC, which are used to secure the loan issued by Belvedere Group to Belvedere Ukraine LLC (the two companies are subsidiaries of Belvedere Ukraine LLC) for UAH 250,000.
Belvedere Group believes that the auction was held illegally.
“Belvedere Group did not give consent to sell assets and hold the auction, and the company did not have any impact on the conditions of the sale of the assets, which resulted to the sale of the collateral at the price which is considerably lower than its real cost,” the company said.
Belvedere Group was founded in 1991 in France. The company is one of the largest producers and distributors of alcohol in France and Poland and it is present in over 100 countries. It has production facilities in Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Spain, the United States, Brazil and France. In November 2007, the group acquired Cherkasy Liquor and Vodka Plant, renaming it Boisson Elite Belvedere Group.