JFC

JFC Group fails to oust bankruptcy administrator

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The JFC Group has failed in its efforts to oust its bankruptcy administrator in the St. Petersburg Commercial Court.

JFC Group is currently involved in a court supervised bankruptcy procedure.

The creditor, Raiffeisen Bank, claimed that Dmitry Bubnov, the temporary administrator of the fruit company, has twice failed to submit the regular performance reports required by the court as well as his analysis of the debtor’s fiscal status.

However, according to the court, the bank has not presented any evidence showing that Bubnov has been negligent, as claimed by the bank. Raiffeisen claimed that Bubnov’s inaction has entailed, or could have entailed, losses for the debtor and the creditors.

The group’s major creditors include the Bank of Moscow, Sberbank, Promsvyazbank, Uralsib Bank, and Raiffeisen Bank.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Russian largest fruit importer declared bankrupt in London

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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

JFC Loses New Action Against Norwegian reefer operator

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A U.K. court says Russia’s largest fruit importer JFC Group must disclose all its worldwide assets after the company failed to pay $16.5 million in damages to Norwegian shipowner Star Reefers.

In August the High Court in London awarded the refrigerated cargo ship operator damages and costs against charter party guarantor JFC, following the unlawful early redelivery of three ships and wrongful termination of charters by JFC’s chartering arm Kalistad.

After JFC failed to pay the damages or appeal the judgment was considered “final.”

With JFC’s ongoing failure to pay, a Commercial Court judge last week ordered the St. Petersburg-based company to disclose to Star Reefers all worldwide assets exceeding $25,000. It must also disclose any transactions between JFC and its associated companies in the last year in excess of $25,000.

Source: www.joc.com