The day after VTB announced the purchase of Bank Vozrozhdenie, the High Court of London again arrested the shares of Vozrozhdenie.
Renaissance shares were arrested on August 15, along with other assets of the brothers Alexei and Dmitry Ananyev around the world, said partner of the law firm Nektorov, Saveliev and partners Roman Makarov, representing the interests of holders of credit notes issued under the guarantees of the brothers. Arrest was made by Withersworlwide, a subcontractor of the law firm.
The freezing of assets is a provisional measure for a $ 11 million claim, it was submitted to Ananyev by a group of bondholders. After in December, the Central Bank took away Ananyev-owned Promsvyazbank for sanitation, the papers were no longer served and investors went to court.
The Central Bank after the story with Promsvyazbank demanded that the Ananievs sell the "Renaissance", allowing them to keep a maximum of 10%. The deal did not add up, the time for the order had to be extended, and the regulator himself found the right buyer: VTB's presidency Andrei Kostin told that the state bank was interested in "Revival" "at the request of the Central Bank."
In July, the London court already arrested the assets of Ananievs at the suit of another group of note holders. Under arrest, there were also shares of the "Renaissance". Then Kostin said that until all legal inquiries are resolved, there will be no deal. After that, the defendants - the brothers Ananyev - transferred the court $ 15.6 million and 11 million euros as security (for such amounts the first claim was filed), and the court lifted the arrest.
On Tuesday, speaking about the agreements reached on the purchase of Vozrozhdenie, Anatoly Pechatnikov, deputy chairman of the board of VTB, stressed that the condition for the acquisition of this bank was "purity of title", so the court's decision to lift the arrest was significant. "It cleared the title of the claims of other creditors and allowed us to move further along the path of consolidation of the block of shares and acquisition," Pechatnikov said (quoted by Interfax).
Vedomosti is awaiting comments from VTB representatives, Vozrozhdeniye, Promsvyaz Capital B.V. Dmitry Ananyev and Bonum Capital, which is negotiating the sale of the "Renaissance" on behalf of Dmitry Ananyev. After the sanation of Promsvyazbank, Ananyevs split the assets: Dmitry's banking business remained.
Sanitation of Promsvyazbank did not mean automatic write-off of notes, since these securities are not subordinated, says partner of Nektorov, Saveliev and Partners Ilya Rachkov. Nevertheless, the Ananyev brothers and the companies controlled by them refused to pay a coupon on these securities, he continues. And he believes that the notes distributed by the Ananyev brothers to Promsvyazbank's preferred customers were a tool for misleading these customers: many of them did not manage to get even one coupon payment. He hopes that the High Court will establish this fact and his clients will be able to achieve fairness among a large group of investors (he estimates, several hundred people).