Swissport International The world’s largest airport ground handler says that it is a victim of a “hostile corporate raider attack” by Ukraine International Airlines based on a March 27 Kyiv court ruling that allowed the country’s flagship airline to purchase the Geneva-based company’s 70 percent stake in its local joint venture – Swissport Ukraine – for $400,000.
Swissport estimated the joint venture was worth some $25 million, but UIA said in its defense that Swissport had determined the share price, at less than 1 percent of the actual value, in the first place.
UIA furthermore denies the raider allegation, saying it was treated unfairly as a minority stakeholder in their local ground handling company, accusing its ex-Swiss partner of threatening to dilute its shares in Swissport Ukraine.
Since taking over, UIA rebranded the company as Interavia, and in July it pumped an additional $1 million into the company’s share capital. Meanwhile, Swissport has gone on the offensive to involve diplomats and by lobbying lawmakers and government agencies in the European Union. In turn, UIA has called Swissport’s out-of-courtroom actions a “provocation aimed at discrediting Ukraine’s largest carrier.”
Currently their dispute is being heard in the nation’s highest commercial court. The court is scheduled on Oct. 2 to rule whether Swissport will win back its shares in the former joint-venture, following nine postponements since June.
Their conflict is also being examined by the Ukrainian government’s inter-agency anti-raider committee led by First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov.
McDonald’s Ukraine
On April 26, a Kyiv commercial court ruled that McDonald’s was illegally sold a building in 2006 where it subsequently opened a restaurant on 4 Draizer St. in the Troyeshchyna neighborhood. The decision was based on a lawsuit brought on by Yuri Dziuba, a shareholder in the now bankrupt Radosyn agricultural company, which sold McDonalds one-fifth, or 433.5 square meters, of a building.
The court ruled that Radosyn’s supervisory board on Oct. 17, 2006 illegally voted to approve the sale of the premises to McDonalds because one board member at the time worked as a state notary in contravention of the law. Thus, the board effectively was deprived of having a quorum, or at least 80 percent present for the vote.
On Feb. 2, a Kyiv commercial court recognized Radosyn as bankrupt.
This case is connected to another lawsuit that started in autumn 2011 when Radosyn was undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. The court-appointed trustee for Radosyn, Oleksandr Syrotenko, also filed a lawsuit to invalidate the sale of the building to McDonalds.
McDonald’s maintains it is the legal owner of the restaurant and called the litigation as “artificially initiated legal actions.”
“The (McDonalds) company believes (it) to be the legal owner of the…building and traces no grounds for being deprived of the right of ownership of the building,” the company said in a statement.
First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov’s inter-agency anti-raider committee is currently examining the case.
Vitmark Ukraine
Business and manufacturing operations at leading juice maker Vitmark temporarily came to a halt when law enforcement bodies on Aug. 23 took computer equipment and vital company documents as well as other items related to a criminal case the company says are unrelated and have “nothing to do with business.”
Horizon Capital CEO and founding partner Natalie Jaresko told the Kyiv Post at the time that the move was part of a raider attack on the company. Vitmark is a portfolio company of Horizon, a private equity fund of mostly foreign investors.
Vitmark spokesperson Andriy Kren said that authorities withheld the items it confiscated for two weeks before giving most of it back, and that its export operations had suffered as a result, but didn’t provide an estimated amount of damages.
Vitmark Ukraine filed a complaint dated Sept. 24, seen by the Kyiv Post, to the Highest Qualification Committee of Judges, which disciplines judges, stating that the judge who issued the court order to search and confiscate items at Vitmark’s main office in Odesa acted without grounds or with justification. The complaint furthermore asked the judicial committee to take disciplinary action against the judge.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
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