In the Saratov regional arbitration, sessions are continuing on several lawsuits at once, in which the territory of the former feed mill became a participant. Now the Federal Property Management Agency is also claiming it, hoping to return it to state property.
Rosimuschestvo vs City Hall
Recall that in November, the Federal Property Management Agency imposed a security in the form of a ban on registration actions with three sites. The area of the largest plot is 2.7 hectares, and in total 3.2 hectares are required to be returned to the state. This is actually the entire feed mill plus part of the embankment in front of it.
The statement of claim itself is connected with the recognition of the ownership of the Russian Federation for these three sites. The respondent in this case is the administration of Saratov, in third parties – the participants in the bankruptcy of Saratov Feed Mill OJSC – the project investor Agrovita LLC, its guarantor Avangard-Agro and the plant itself.
At the same time, since November, the Federal Property Management Agency has not made much progress in court: at the end of November, Agrovita petitioned to skip the statute of limitations, but the consideration has been postponed for the time being. The court only satisfied the application to involve Veronika Minenkova, the administrative manager of Avangard-Agro LLC, as a third party. The CUI of the Saratov region was obliged to provide a plan for the privatization of the feed mill.
Earlier, the Federal Property Management Agency extracted serious documents from the annals: title certificates, information on the transfer of ownership, and others. These papers can work as arguments for lethal force, or they can do the opposite, because during its post-Soviet existence, the Saratov Feed Mill leased land from the municipality (the term expires in 2026). On what basis the TU Rosimushchestvo is trying to turn municipal property into federal property is still unclear.
Saratov feed mill vs Agrovita
Recall that litigation around the factory land unfolded in the fall of 2021. The plots went to the project investor Agrovita LLC, which received them from the Saratov Feed Mill OJSC shortly after the company entered into an amicable agreement with creditors. The land near the embankment was the main reward in this process and was supposed to become a platform for an ambitious project – the entertainment and business center “Triumfalny” worth 5 billion rubles.
Avangard-Agro, a company associated with Agrovita, from the Marksovsky District, acted as a guarantor for the fulfillment of the terms of the agreement. The mayor’s office immediately started talking about the demolition of the closed enterprise and renovation, relying on new land owners. “We have monuments there, and they inscribe them,” reasoned Mikhail Isaev, who then held the chair of the mayor of the city: the project investor helped with the construction of the Arc de Triomphe.
But the high-profile project “Triumphal” with a Ferris wheel staggered while still on paper. Already in August, the bankruptcy trustee of the Saratov Feed Mill, as well as the tax and several other companies, filed suits about the invalidity of the transaction between the plant and Agrovita (the transaction amount is 55.3 million rubles).
The property was under arrest by the tax authorities, and although the same person, Ilya Avdeev, stood behind Agrovita and mixed fodder, it was impossible to transfer or sell it. In court, the bankruptcy trustee achieved a ban on any transactions with the property transferred to Agrovita, the court did not satisfy the latter’s petition to cancel the security in December last year. Consideration of this application is scheduled for January 23.
In December, the arbitral tribunal refused to consider the claims against the debtor for the payment of mandatory payments in full, which Agrovita also petitioned for, to be satisfied. The company was supposed to do this back in September, but did not do it by December either, leaving a debt to the tax service of 54 million rubles unpaid.
This became a fly in the ointment when deciding on a new settlement agreement approved in July at a meeting of creditors. According to the proposed document, the VHC had to pay creditors only 10% of the debts to them, and the remaining 90% are forgiven. However, the court considered the agreement to violate the interests of creditors and denied approval. The tax authority is completely petitioning for the cancellation of the decision of the meeting of creditors, at which the issue of a settlement agreement was decided.
The next meeting in the framework of this case will be held on February 13 – by this time the examination appointed by the court will be ready.
Agrovita vs Avangard-Agro
In parallel with this, the bankruptcy of Avangard-Agro was going on in the Saratov arbitration: literally on the eve of the signing of a settlement agreement in 2021 on the feed mill, the same Agrovita undertook to bankrupt it.
Moreover, at that time, BV expert, head of Argument’s legal bureau Andrey Larin assumed that in this way the beneficiaries of bankruptcy could try to hide the ends in the water and withdraw assets. Against this background, the attempts of the Federal Property Management Agency to return the land to state ownership may indeed look like a desire to keep the tidbits of the embankment from withdrawal and subsequent sale.
Now, by the way, cardinal changes have been outlined in the bankruptcy of Avangard-Agro: last month it became known about the signing of a settlement agreement. The company undertook to pay 443.4 million rubles within two years, while the pool of creditors headed by Agrovita (314.7 million rubles) refused to collect interest from the debtor.
Two other creditors, in particular NVKbank, disagreed with this. Despite the fact that the company’s debt to him was fully paid, interest remained uncovered – 63.8 million rubles.
But this petition has been postponed until January 23, and within the framework of this case it is unlikely to be satisfied – by that time the court decision on the approval of the settlement agreement and the termination of the proceedings will come into force. With a similar wording at the beginning of February, the applications of two more companies were postponed.
The next meeting on the claim of the Federal Property Management Agency against the administration of Saratov should take place today, January 17th.
