Dirijan finansye gwoup resevwa desizyon tribinal nan dispit ki dire lontan # telecoms

The District Court of Nicosia has ruled in favour of System Capital Management (SCM), Ukraine’s leading financial and industrial group, in its dispute with Raga Establishment over the status of Ukrtelecom, the country’s largest fixed-line, mobile and internet communications service provider, ekri Martin Banks.

As a result of the legal victory, SCM’s assets have been unfrozen, reversing a December 2017 Cypriot court ruling. Earlier this year, the District Court of Nicosia issued a temporary order to freeze SCM’s Cyprus-based assets up to the amount of US$820 million, following a dispute with Raga Establishment over the privatization of Ukretelecom, the former state-owned telecoms company.

The dispute arose following the failure of Raga Establishment to honour the strict legal terms of its sale of Ukrtelecom to SCM in 2013.  In the agreement, Raga claimed to have adhered to a 2011 privatization agreement with Ukraine’s privatization authorities which bound it to heavily invest in Ukrtelecom’s infrastructure in the country. Upon discovering Raga’s alleged failure to adhere to its legal agreement with the Ukrainian state regarding Ukrtelecom, SCM sought to reverse the agreed purchase and demanded the return of its $100 million prepayment.

This sparked a lawsuit on the part of Raga Establishment, demanding that SCM pay them the full US$760 for an asset that is expected to be taken back into state ownership shortly.  In September 2016, SCM filed a counterclaim with the LCIA to rescind the sale of Ukrtelecom, which would have returned shares in Ukrtelecom to Raga and the prepayment sum to SCM. While the arbitration was still pending, in April 2017, the State Privatization Fund of Ukraine initiated proceedings to renationalize Ukrtelecom.

Commenting on the successful outcome, SCM’s Director of International & Investor Relations Jock Mendoza-Wilson told EBR: “We are delighted by today’s judgement. The District Court of Nicosia has ruled that the freezing order obtained by Raga Establishment Limited on 27 December 2017 against, among others, several SCM Group companies and Rinat Akhmetov has now been discharged. All restrictions imposed by that freezing order in dealing with their respective assets have been removed. The Court also issued an order awarding the legal costs in favour of the SCM Group and against Raga.

“The court stated in its judgement that the December 2017 Cypriot freezing order was obtained by Raga inappropriately and unjustifiably. This is illustrative of Raga’s behaviour in this dispute and a reflection of the true nature of its claim filed against SCM Group and Rinat Akhmetov in Cyprus. We maintain that such claim is baseless, just as the now discharged freezing order had been baseless.

“We will continue to defend vigorously against Raga Establishment claims in Cyprus and other jurisdictions.”

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