Orlov got rid of Prominvestbank

Orlov got rid of Prominvestbank

The founder of the Energoimpex group managed to get rid of the debt to a bank with Russian capital not without the help of retired oil refiner Serhiy Hlushko. His discount amounted to almost 85%.

The beginning of financial relations between Prominvestbank and the structures of Donetsk coal processor Andriy Orlov was established in 2011 when a company close to the Energoimpex group of Orlov (at that time a Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Party of Regions) LLC "Donetskvuhlezbagachennya" arranged a credit line No. 20-1741/2-1 with a limit of 25 million dollars in Prominvestbank.

The guarantors of the debtor included LLC "Istek," which owned the Horlivsky Coke Chemical Plant, LLC "UP TOF ’Chumakovska’" (eponymous coal processing plant), and LLC "Energocapital" (a complex for the disposal of sludge waste of the metallurgical and coal industries). In 2012, Prominvestbank opened credit line No. 20-2090/2-1 with a limit of 9.2 million dollars to Orlov’s main structure, LLC "Energoimpex."

The parties transitioned from productive to conflictual relations in 2015 when the bank initiated legal proceedings against the borrowers who stopped servicing their debts. In 2016, Prominvestbank achieved a decision from the Commercial Court of Zaporizhzhya region for the forced collection from "Energoimpex" of overdue debt of 4.175 million dollars on the loan and another 670 thousand dollars in interest, which took effect in 2017.

In June 2018, the Commercial Court of Zaporizhzhya region ordered the joint collection of 27 million dollars from LLC "Donetskvuhlezbagachennya" and LLC "Istek." Previously, Prominvestbank achieved decisions on collecting collateral in the form of the property complex of TOF "Chumakovska" and the sludge waste disposal complex towards the debt of "Donetskvuhlezbagachennya."

However, such verdicts did not cause significant harm to Orlov’s business. The fact is that the production complex "Chumakovska" is located in Donetsk, and "Energocapital" is in Makiivka. That is, in the territory occupied by pro-Russian militants, with whom Andriy Orlov, who moved to the USA during Yanukovych’s time, did not establish relations.

Additionally, in 2017, bankruptcy proceedings for "Energoimpex" were initiated in the Commercial Court of Donetsk region, and last year for LLC "Donetskvuhlezbagachennya."

In such a situation, the bank found its hands tied, and considering the risks of introducing a temporary administration (as in the case of VTB), amidst the arrest of shares of banks with Russian state capital, Prominvestbank decided to get at least something from its debtor. It recently became known that "Energoimpex" was excluded from Prominvestbank’s debtor list. This conclusion can be drawn from the lawsuit of the aforementioned LLC "Istek" to the Commercial Court of Donetsk region, where it requests recognition of the termination of obligations of LLC "Energoimpex" to Prominvestbank under agreement No. 20-2090/2-1.

"In substantiation of the claims, the applicant refers to the termination of obligations of LLC ’Energoimpex,’ as a borrower to PJSC ’Prominvestbank,’ as a creditor: in terms of payment in the amount of 25,044,000.00 UAH..." states the court’s ruling, which accepted the claim for consideration, scheduling a hearing for March 13. And it seems, it is likely to be satisfied without objection from the bank.

Interestingly, the mentioned 25 million UAH were paid to the bank by an intermediary - LLC "Financial Company ’Horyzont’," which belongs to the former head of PJSC "Ukrtatnafta" Serhiy Hlushko.

This company has been engaged for several years in purchasing "bad" debts from banks, working with "Golden Gates," Delta Bank, and others.

The discount in this deal exceeded 85% (earlier, during the bankruptcy of "Energoimpex," the company’s debt to Prominvestbank under contract No. 20-2090/2-1 was recorded at 174.25 million UAH), which in such a situation seems to be a reasonable result for Orlov.

And it seems that he was forced to go for the deal by a desire to protect himself from the loss of partial control over the main asset of "Energoimpex" - TOF "Selydivska." This is one of his two remaining coal processing plants on the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, with a capacity of 1.6 million tons of coal per year.

Yehor Kazhanov