Ukrainian PM drawn into dispute over Quinn mall

THE PRIME minister of Ukraine, Mykola Azaror, has been asked to intervene in the efforts of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), formerly Anglo Irish Bank, to get control of a valuable property in Kiev linked to the family of Seán Quinn.

Swedish companies formerly owned by the Quinn family and associated with the property, were loaned money from Anglo with the Ukraina shopping centre, worth some tens of millions of euro, acting as collateral.

Robert Dix, a Dublin accountant recently appointed as a director of the Swedish holding company, wrote the open letter to Mr Azaror on Thursday, which was carried in newspapers.

“The deplorable virus of raidering has begun attacking Ukraine with new force,” Mr Dix said in his letter. “Today this malicious practice continues to manifest itself in such cases as the attack on Kyiv’s legendary shopping mall, Ukraina.”

Mr Dix was put in place by by a Swedish share receiver appointed earlier this year to the Swedish company by the Swedish courts at the request of Anglo.

He said his company, Quinn Holdings Sweden AB, holds almost 93 per cent of the shares in the company that owns the mall, PAT Univermag Ukraine.

“Yet, taking into account the circumstances of our case, we have all grounds to assume that we are in danger of being deprived of our property.”

He said a series of lawsuits had been initiated that were aimed at invalidating the mortgage agreement surrounding the mall.

“Quinn Holdings Sweden AB has been literally stripped of their power to control the running of the enterprise.”

He said that for the past two weeks, the newly appointed director of the mall business had been denied access to his place of work. The director concerned, Rostyslav Levinzon, yesterday told The Irish Times that he was being prevented from entering the premises.

Mr Dix, in his open letter, said his company’s efforts to protect its right to its property were being obstructed by “outrageously crude actions”.

He said the possibility that it could lose control of the mall would damage the trust foreign investors might have in doing business in Ukraine.

Mr Dix is a former partner with KPMG in Dublin.

The valuable shopping mall is one of a number of properties in Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere that are at the centre of a multi-jurisdictional dispute between members of the Quinn family and the IBRC, which is trying to enforce its collateral agreements.

The Quinn family, for its part, has said the loans issued by Anglo are “tainted by illegality” and that they are intent on preventing IBRC getting control of the properties.

An extended news feature on the battle over the Kiev property featured in yesterday’s edition of the English-language Kyiv Post, which said the issue of the mall had been raised during a meeting between the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and Mr Azarov, on September 29th. A Government spokeswoman was unable to confirm this last night.

PAT Univermag Ukraine, which owns the mall, is 93 per cent owned by the Swedish company. However, the rest of the Ukrainian company is owned by 4,000 small shareholders.

Mr Levinzon was approved by the shareholders earlier this month but an injunction against that appointment was subsequently issued in the name of one of the minority shareholders. Meanwhile, the director who was in place prior to Mr Levinzon’s appointment has remained in control of the business.

IBRC is funding a media campaign in Ukraine to try to put pressure on the authorities there to intervene in the dispute over control of the mall. A local press release dated November 8th said that Quinn Holdings Sweden had decided that maximum publicity concerning what was happening was the best way in which it can protect its assets.

“We intentionally decided to make the matter public, open to civil society and the business community of Ukraine,” Mr Dix was quoted as having told a Ukrainian court. The campaign includes a website, http://univermagukraina.com.

There was no comment yesterday from a spokesman for the Quinn family about the Kiev dispute.