According to the Russian newspaper Commersant, the founder of Russia’s largest fruit importer JFC Vladimir Kekhman was declared bankrupt by the London Court. At the moment, neither Russian nor Western creditors can not reclaim his foreign assets. This is a precedent: it is the first time for a Russian businessman who owes $ 1.3 billion to banks, to seek protection from banks in foreign courts. Lawyers believe that Mr. Kekhman decided to avoid the fate of Shalva Chigirinsky, whose creditors managed to seize all the personal property of the developer: real estate in London and Monaco, and even his watch.
The information that Vladimir Kekhman was declared bankrupt as an individual can be found at the UK Register of personal bankruptcy. It also states that “the individual details of the bankruptcy case are taken from the order of the High Court of Justice, which made this decision on Oct. 5, 2012.”
Vladimir Kekhman declined to give any comment yesterday. Banks creditors of JFC group, of which Mr. Kekhman is the founder and owner of the largest share, got to know about the bankruptcy from “Commersant”, and could not yet give a comment on the information. As previously reported, in March of the current year, the managing company of JFC had been declared bankrupt. The total debt of Russian legal entities entering the JFC, including fines and penalties make 38.5 billion rubles ($ 1.3 billion) up to the present day. Major creditors of the group are Sberbank, Bank of Moscow, PSB and “Uralsib” banks. Totally, in the courts of the Russian jurisdiction there are more than a dozen lawsuits against JFC and its subsidiaries to recover overdue debts.
JFC is one of the largest Russian importers of fruit, including bananas brand Bonanza!. According to its own data, it takes up to 40% of the Russian market of bananas. The main shareholder of JFC Group with a share of 80.09% is a Cyprus company Huntleigh Investments Ltd, owned by the head of the Mikhailovsky Theatre Vladimir Kekhman.
Total revenue of CJSC “JFC Group” in the first half of 2011 was 5.6 billion rubles ($ 200 million, 11% more over the same period in 2010), the net profit was equal to 45.5 million rubles ($ 1.6 million, 85% by 2010).
Source: www.fruitnews.ru