Russia’s Sberbank, a key stakeholder in Croatian food producer and retailer Agrokor, has started to receive proposals to sell its share in the firm which is emerging from a debt crisis, an aide to Sberbank’s CEO said. Agrokor, the largest firm in the Balkans with over 50,000 staff, was put under state-run administration last year, crippled by debts built up during an ambitious expansion drive, Reuters reported. In October, a Croatian court approved a deal for the indebted Agrokor that includes a debt-for-equity swap.
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Rising geopolitical tensions are increasingly playing out in the global debt markets, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Russia’s launch this week of the sale of a euro-denominated bond is just the latest example.
A deepening row between Russia and Ukraine ignited by a naval skirmish at the weekend has sparked falls in both countries’ financial markets, the Financial Times reported. Ukraine’s government bonds issued in foreign currency faced significant drops in price, which sent yields rising. Yield on a 10-year dollar-denominated bond maturing in November 2028 jumped 38.7 basis points to 10.832 per cent, its highest level since issuance. A 15-year dollar bond that matures in September 2032 faced a similar rise in yield to 10.385 per cent, also a record high for the paper.
Russian potash producer Uralkali announced legal action against the administrators of the Force India Formula One team on Thursday after having a bid rejected in what it called a “flawed sale process,” Reuters reported. The company said in a statement it was seeking substantial damages in the London High Court for “prejudicial and unequal treatment”. Joint administrators Geoff Rowley and Jason Baker, for FRP Advisory LLP, said they were confident the claim would be dismissed “at the earliest opportunity”.
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While the war in Ukraine’s east continues to rage four years on, the battle between Russia and Ukraine is returning to the calm and order of a London courtroom. There, British judges, unwilling to play diplomat, are this week set to rule on an appeal by Ukraine that it must repay part of a $3 billion bond in default, Bloomberg News reported. The Court of Appeal will rule on the case after Russia won an early verdict last spring in a lower court. The dispute “has multiple venues, and courtrooms are one of them," said Orysia Lutsevych, a research fellow at the Chatham House thinktank in London.
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Second-round bids put in by Russia's VTB Group-backed Numetal Ltd, ArcelorMittal and Vedanta will be opened on Monday, people with direct knowledge of the development said. The Resolution Professional, overseeing the auction of Essar Steel to recover over Rs 49,000 crore of unpaid loans, sent emails to all the three bidders to be present on Monday for the opening of the second round of bids, they said. This follows an NCLAT judgement last week on the eligibility of bids.
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The High Court has granted a temporary injunction preventing an Irish registered aviation company linked to a controversial Russian businessman from going into voluntary liquidation, The Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Michael Quinn made an interim injunction preventing the members of City Leasing DAC, which has registered address in Limerick from holding a meeting of its members, who were due to consider a resolution to wind up the company. The company is beneficially owned by Rashid Mursekayev, who has extensive interests in the aviation industry.
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Russian potash producer Uralkali has questioned the process behind the sale of the Force India Formula One team after losing out in a battle between billionaire fathers of young racing drivers, Reuters reported. Uralkali co-owner Dmitry Mazepin is the father of 19-year-old Nikita, who races in the junior GP3 series and is a development driver for Force India. The team were put into administration at the end of July with a rescue deal led by Canadian Lawrence Stroll, the father of 19-year-old Williams F1 racer Lance, announced on Aug. 7.
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The ruble extended its steepest slide in almost two years as a fresh round of U.S. sanctions against Russia deepened concern about what could be targeted next, Bloomberg News reported. Investors who had been building long positions in the currency earlier in the summer rushed for the exit, causing a two-day plunge of as much as 5.1 percent. Analysts at Citibank said it looks like traders are already pricing in a worst-case scenario of sanctions on banks and new sovereign debt.
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Russia's VTB Capital-backed Numetal on Tuesday said Ruia family scion Rewant will never be in management of Essar Steel even though the rules do not bar blood relations of delinquent promoters from bidding for loan defaulter companies being auctioned to recover dues, Firstpost reported. During the proceedings of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), senior advocate Mihir Thakore representing Numetal said that the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) does not disqualify anyone based on blood relations. Aurora Enterprises Ltd (AEL) had a 25 percent shareholding in Numetal.
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