Kernel chairman Verevskiy won UAH 5 bln Delta Bank's assets suit

The Commercial Court of Kyiv City passed a decision on October 12 to satisfy the claim of Financial Company Sky owned by Andrey Verevskiy, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kernel, against the Deposit Guarantee Fund (DGF) and the National Bank (NBU) and recognized the sale and purchase agreement for UAH 5 bln of the Delta Bank asset pool, which was sold at an auction in June 2019, Finbalance reports with reference to the relevant court decision.

This amount, among other things, includes the debt on loan agreements of enterprises Ilichivsk Oil and Fat Plant, Odesa Oil and Fat Plant, Olir.

As loan collateral, there are facilities for processing of agricultural products located in Odesa region:

• 39 thou. sq. m. of industrial real estate (equipped oil and fat plant) and a land plot of 8.6 ha in Chernomorsk town of Odesa region;
• the operating oil and fat facility (31 thou. sq. m.) for the production of margarine, cooking and confectionery fats, sunflower oil and mayonnaise (located near the railway tracks on 5,34 ha of industrial land) in Odesa.

Several of the disputed assets are pledged by the NBU and Ukreximbank.

Financial Company Sky with an offer of UAH 182.5 mln became the winner of the Deposit Guarantee Fund auction for the sale of Delta Bank’s pool of assets for UAH 4,85 bln held on June 7, 2019. According to the YouControl analytical system, 100% of the share capital (UAH 7 mln) of Sky is owned by Meissen. The founder of Kernel Andrey Verevskiy is the ultimate beneficiary of the latter through the Swiss company Filstar Ltd.

This same financial company in March 2019 won the auction held by the Guarantee Fund with the offer of UAH 906 mln. However, then the transaction was blocked by the court at the request of a third party.

On July 8, 2019, the NBU reversed its decision to approve the sale of this asset pool on the grounds that the auction was held with certain circumstances present and possible manipulations on the part of the buyer, which could affect the outcome of bidding and sale of the property at an undervalue.

It is noted that on July 9, 2019, the DGF made a decision to cancel the results of the auction held on June 7, 2019. The Fund noted that it was guided by, among other things, the decision of the NBU Board to cancel the approval of the sale of the relevant pool of assets. However, on October 12, 2020, the Commercial Court of Kyiv City reversed the aforementioned decisions of the NBU and DGF.

The total amount of Ukreximbank's creditor claims against Delta Bank, which were secured, including the specified oil and fat assets, was UAH 1.44 bln.

The resale of Delta Bank's asset pool was to be held on August 31, 2020, at Debtex Ukraine platform (DebtX).