“Oschadbank is ready to recover the Gulliver shopping center if ARMA takes it into management - bank representative
Kyiv • UNN
“Oshchadbank plans to foreclose on the Gulliver shopping center building if the property is transferred to the ARMA. The bank emphasizes that its interests are being ignored and that it may suffer losses of more than UAH 20 billion due to the termination of loan payments.
The state-owned Oschadbank plans to recover the building of the capital's Gulliver shopping center in its favor if the Asset Recovery and Management Agency transfers it to its management. This was stated in an exclusive commentary to UNN by Arsen Miliutin, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Oschadbank responsible for working with NPL.
We will apply for foreclosure on the facility. It's ridiculous, they (ARMA - ed.) understood the position of state-owned banks from day one, and they act as if the position of state-owned banks does not exist. Why should we appeal to anyone? Why didn't they take this into account? When developing the documentation, they should have taken into account the position of state-owned banks, why didn't they? Why do we have to run after ARMA and beg for something? We will foreclose on the property, that's all. This is what we said from the very beginning, we said it in May, and the Verkhovna Rada said it would happen, and it is happening. Someone wants to take money from state-owned banks
A representative of Oschadbank emphasized that he did not understand why, instead of paying the loan to state-owned banks, Gulliver's earnings would be given to an "incomprehensible manager.
"There are plans to leave the banks without paying for the loan, to give everything that Gulliver earns to someone with some incomprehensible manager. What are the terms and conditions? They plan to send 10% of the revenue to the budget for management, and the manager can dispose of the rest at his discretion. What does this mean? We had an agreement with the current owner that 40% of the bank would be owned by the state," Miliutin said.
According to him, ARMA representatives did not ask Oschadbank to resolve the situation in a way that would take into account the interests of the state-owned bank. Although, as Miliutin emphasized, ARMA is well aware of the debt to state-owned banks, which is much higher than the cost of the Gulliver building itself.
"In my opinion, the agency should have addressed Oschadbank and Ukreximbank, since this is a consortium loan, with a request to determine the terms of the tender for the management of this facility. We would definitely have taken the position that the loan should be repaid in accordance with the financial models that we had calculated with TRI O LLC... We saw it roughly as follows: about 40% of the revenue should be used to pay off the debt on a regular basis. And it was absolutely real. At least 40 percent," he emphasized.
Context
The day before, the ARMA finally remembered the interests of the state-owned Oschadbank during the tender for the selection of a manager for the Gulliver shopping center in Kyiv and decided to send a letter to it with justifications. In particular, the agency stated that the corporate rights and funds on the company's accounts were not transferred to ARMA's management, and that the fulfillment of loan obligations depends solely on the borrower.
However, even Oshchadbank emphasizedthat the company TRI O, which owns the mall, has this asset as its only source of income and that if it is transferred to a new manager, it will not be able to repay the loan. The losses of Oschadbank due to the termination of loan payments could reach more than UAH 20 billion.
