The holding Ostchem, owned by Firtash, has gone bankrupt

The holding Ostchem, owned by Firtash, has gone bankrupt

The Salzburg Regional Court has initiated bankruptcy proceedings against OSTCHEM Holding GmbH, which is part of a network of companies owned by Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash.

This is reported by the Austrian news agency APA.

It is reported that on Monday, the Salzburg Regional Court opened bankruptcy proceedings against OSTCHEM Holding GmbH.

According to the Austrian Association for Credit Reform, the company, located in Salzburg, functions as a classic holding company whose sole purpose is to own and manage shares of other companies. It is part of a network of Dmytro Firtash’s enterprises, who resides in Vienna.

The main shareholder (86%) of the holding is a Cyprus-registered company, Fleori Enterprises Ltd., which belongs to Firtash.

"The only ’asset’ of the debtor until recently was a 100% subsidiary in Germany. No other business activities were carried out. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the company lost control over the chemical plant located there. With the loss of the plant, the operational activities of the second-level subsidiary, PJSC ’Ukrainian Chemical Products’, which is now in the process of liquidation, also completely ceased," the report states.

At the same time, it is noted that OSTCHEM Holding GmbH still has significant tax debts to the Republic of Austria, which cannot be settled. According to the Association for Credit Reform, the unpaid amounts include a corporate tax for 2011 of €3.36 million and for 2012 of €4.21 million. The payment was due on December 27, 2024. It is now impossible to appeal the relevant decisions of the federal financial court.

"For the balance sheet of the 2023 financial year, there are no actual assets, but there are liabilities amounting to almost €43 million. According to the Association for Credit Reform, a list of creditors has not yet been compiled. The company is to be closed and liquidated, and there are no longer any employees. Creditors have until March 5, 2025, to register their claims," the report notes.

Meanwhile, according to the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung, the Ukrainian oligarch Firtash, who is evading American justice in Vienna, is not sitting idle. He plans to build a chemical industrial park in Rivne: "His industrial group, Group DF International GmbH, which is also based in Austria, decided to partner with the Korean company Hyundai Engineering to build a chemical industrial park in the city of Rivne as part of post-war reconstruction in Ukraine. The relevant cooperation agreement was signed in Vienna in April 2024."