07/09/2017

Transaero creditors voted to sell its assets

Sergei Levichev, Head of Bankruptcy Practice, commented for Vedomosti on the results of the first meeting of creditors of Transaero airline.

The first meeting of Transaero creditors was held on September 6 in St. Petersburg at Vasilyevsky Congress Hall, 21 months after the introduction of the observation procedure in once-second Russian air carrier. The creditors controlling 93.87% of the company's debts (the register includes claims for 250 billion rubles) were present. 93.1% voted for the introduction of bankruptcy proceeding (sale of assets) for Transaero and against financial recovery (resumption of activities), said two employees of creditor banks.

The next session of the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg on the bankruptcy of Transaero will be held on September 12. The company ceased operations on October 26, 2015, when Rosaviation annulled its operator's certificate. On December 16 of the same year, observation procedure was introduced with respect to Transaero. Alexander Burdin, then appointed General Director, suggests that the creditors create, by allocating some of Transaero's assets to it, a new airline that will be able to repay some of the debt through its activities. New loans, according to the plan of Burdin, will not be required at the beginning of the activity - the funds will be received from the sale of allocated assets.

"At the observation stage, the management plan would have to be approved by the Board of Directors and shareholders - during bankruptcy proceeding, bankruptcy administrator becomes the sole executive body, and the functions of shareholders, in fact, pass to the meeting of creditors," - said the representative of Transaero.

"Such a transaction is possible during bankruptcy proceeding, it needs a simple majority of votes at a meeting of creditors. In the observation procedure, this would be an amicable agreement, in the case of Transaero, it would take a very complicated procedure for approval," - agrees Sergei Kovalev, Managing Partner of Kovalev, Tugushi and Partners . "When the court approves the results of the meeting of creditors, the revival of the carrier in its pure form will be impossible. The only option is to replace assets when a new JSC is being created on the basis of the debtor's liquid assets (as management suggests)," - says Sergei Levichev , Head of Bankruptcy Practice at Pavlova & Partners.

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We would like to remind that Pavlova & Partners represents in the bankruptcy case of the airline interests of the travel agency Biblio Globus, which is a creditor of Transaero with a claim for 2.4 billion rubles.

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Ирина Кошечкина

Юрист