Volkswagen released from arrest – Newspaper Kommersant No. 57 (7502) dated 04/04/2023
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The Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region partially lifted the seizure of Russian real estate and Volkswagen equipment, including the plant in Kaluga. The assets were arrested at the suit of the GAZ group, which demanded the recovery of 15.6 billion rubles. losses and cancel the termination of the agreement on the contract assembly of Skoda and VW at GAZ. During the consideration of the claim, it became known about the payments that VW already made to GAZ after the termination of the contract assembly. The value of the assets of the Russian subsidiary in Volkswagen is estimated at 47.5 billion rubles, which is considered disproportionate to the amount of claims. Formally, the removal of interim measures opens the possibility for VW to sell the plant.
On April 3, the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region lifted the seizure of Russian real estate and equipment of Volkswagen Group Rus LLC (FGR), having considered the concern’s petition.
The restrictions were imposed as interim measures for the claim of the GAZ group of Oleg Deripaska for the recovery of damages of 15.6 billion resulting from the breach of the agreement on the contract assembly of Skoda and VW at GAZ (see Kommersant dated March 21). In addition to property, the arrest imposed on March 17 concerned the shares of foreign legal entities in the FGR. These restrictions remain. At the same time, VW was already planning to complete the approval of the sale of Russian assets to a “trustworthy Russian investor” – according to Kommersantcar dealer “Avilon”.
In the main lawsuit, GAZ disputes the agreement signed in August 2022 to terminate the contract for contract assembly, calculated until 2025. After the inclusion of GAZ in the SDN list of the US Treasury in 2018, the conditions for cooperation at VW were licenses that continued to be issued to the concern. After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the US Treasury refused to extend the delay for GAZ (it expired on June 25, 2022) – production had already been suspended.
VW representative Irina Likhacheva in court referred to the disproportionateness of GAZ’s claims to the size of the seized assets of his former partner.
The lawyer emphasized that the authorized capital of the FGR is about 8 billion rubles, and the value of the net assets of companies whose shares belong to the defendant is estimated at 47.5 billion rubles.
This is more than enough to satisfy the claim of GAZ, the representative of the defendant noted. Moreover, the Volkswagen car plant in Kaluga has not yet been sold, several thousand employees are employed there, and the enterprise needs to be maintained, but bailiffs have already described equipment and workshops worth about 20 billion rubles. Ms. Likhacheva added that the FGR partially repaid the claims of GAZ, transferring 4 billion rubles to it. under a contract assembly agreement.
We are talking about payments as part of the termination of the industrial assembly agreement, which Kommersant’s sources told about.
Denis Golubev, a representative of GAZ, argued that the norms of enforcement proceedings do not prohibit applying to bailiffs for permission to service the plant. Regarding the rest of the claims, the lawyer noted that the seizure of property does not violate the balance of the parties, since the authorized capital without assets has no value. Moreover, the defendant’s accounts payable are estimated at 37.5 billion rubles, the plaintiff emphasized, and the prospects for collecting receivables in the amount of 3 billion rubles. unclear.
Kommersant’s interlocutors said that VW wanted the buyer to provide social guarantees for employees and pay off suppliers (see “Kommersant” of March 1). Mr. Golubev noted that the plant’s activity is not paralyzed, since the money was not arrested, and asked the court to refuse VW’s petition.
As a result, judge Dmitry Okorokov decided to remove the arrest from Russian real estate and equipment of the German concern. Mr. Golubev told Kommersant that representatives of GAZ will study the motivational part of the decision and decide on further actions. Proceedings on the main claim of the GAZ group to invalidate the severance of relations with Volkswagen and collect damages will begin on April 18.
Dmitry Dedov, senior adviser at the law firm INGVARR, says the arrest may involve the ability to keep the property in working order, calling the decision “a flaw in GAZ’s lawyers.”
Taking into account the fact that representatives of VW were able to prove, within the framework of consideration in court of the issue of interim measures, that the total amount of assets of their concern in the Russian Federation exceeds more than three times the amount of claims of GAZ (47 billion rubles against 15 billion rubles), it is possible suggest that the prospects for selling the group’s assets to the investor remain, says Georgy Shashero, Counselor of the A1 Bar Association. “Nevertheless, such a sale before the final resolution of the dispute with GAZ, given the size of the claims and the still early stage of the entire claim process, is hardly possible without a significant discount,” he specified.
On the whole, Mr. Shachero assesses the decision of the court positively – it allows the company not to stand idle and continue to work, thereby protecting the interests of VW as an investor: RF”.
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