site.btaSupreme Court Leaves without Consideration Corpbank Shareholders', Directors' Appeals against Bank's Initial Date of Insolvency

Supreme Court Leaves without Consideration Corpbank Shareholders', Directors' Appeals against
Bank's Initial Date of Insolvency

Sofia, July 6 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) Wednesday left without consideration appeals lodged by Bromak EOOD, Bulgarian Acquisition Co. S.a.r.l. and the Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) executive directors against a Sofia City Court judgment declaring the bank insolvent and terminating the intermediate appellate review proceedings on these appeals, the SCC said in a press release.

By the same ruling, the SCC left without consideration the cassation appeals lodged by Corpbank's executive directors, Bromak and Bulgarian Acquisition Co. against a Sofia Appellate Court judgment setting the bank's initial date of insolvency at June 20, 2014.

The SCC found that the executive directors' and Bromak's appeal is inadmissible because it was lodged by persons not duly empowered to represent the bank. The appeals lodged by Bromak and Bulgarian Acquisition Company in their capacity as shareholders intervening in the bankruptcy proceedings were also pronounced inadmissible because, under the Bank Bankruptcy Act, shareholders do not have the right to appeal against judgments rendered in the bank bankruptcy proceedings.

Tzvetan Vassilev's Sofia-based Bromak is the majority shareholder in Corpbank, with a 50.7 per cent stake. Luxembourg-registered Bulgarian Acquisition Co., controlled by the State General Reserve Fund of Oman (SGRF), has 30.4 per cent, and VTB Group, Russia's second-biggest lender, holds 9.9 per cent.

Corpbank suspended all operations on June 21, 2014 after a run by depositors left it illiquid and on the same day it was placed by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) under special supervision. The BNB Governing Council withdrew Corpbank's banking licence, effective November 6, 2014. On April 22, 2015, the Sofia City Court adjudicated Corpbank bankrupt and set its initial insolvency date at November 6, 2014. The prosecution, the BNB, and the bank's trustees in bankruptcy and shareholders challenged that date, demanding that it be changed to September 30, 2014, when an audit report found that the bank had a negative capital.