Sergei Bakeshin has commented to the DP on investors’ interest to buy up troubled assets

At the beginning of the year the Briskly acquired the production complex of Vyborg Refrigeration Plant and Linnafrost trading house. The investor intends to produce about 10 thousand “smart” refrigerators a year at the enterprise. The transaction price was 76 million roubles, which is 1.6 times lower than the price requested by the seller and more than 3 times lower than the seller initial expectations. However, the buyer purchased the asset, against which the Russian Federal Tax Service soon filed for bankruptcy. The Commercial Court of St Petersburg and Leningrad Region dismissed the application due to defects, but, according to media, the new owner paid off to the fiscal services about 10 million roubles debts of the plant in order to complete the deal.

Sergei Bakeshin, senior associate at Maxima Legal, told the Delovoy Peterburg newspaper that investors are interested in purchase of troubled businesses now: “One of the directions is acquisition of an asset through bankruptcy proceedings: either by buying out creditor’s claims against the debtor, or by buying the property during the bankruptcy proceedings”. At the same time, according to Sergei, there is some activity in the food industry and agriculture.

To read the full article (in Russian), please see the Delovoy Peterburg newspaper website >>>