Hearing next month on Quinn firm in Russia

A MOSCOW court has adjourned until next month a hearing to declare bankrupt a Russian company within the international property group of the family of businessman Seán Quinn.

The Moscow court of arbitration will hear the bankruptcy petition from the company, Finansstroy, on August 24th after ruling yesterday that it had insufficient documentation to proceed with the case at the scheduled hearing.

Anglo Irish Bank and the Quinns are battling for control of the family’s international group which has properties in Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and India worth an estimated €500 million.

Legal proceedings between the two sides have been taken in Ireland, Sweden, Cyprus and Russia.

The family are seeking to have Finansstroy made bankrupt and to appoint their own insolvency practitioner to the company, which has valuable properties in Russia, including the Kutuzoff office block in an upmarket area of Moscow.

The 20-storey building, which stands over a six-level underground car park, generates the largest amount of rental income of any of the properties in the family’s international property group.

The bank is owed about €2.9 billion by the family and has appointed a receiver to take control of companies in Ireland and Sweden behind the properties.

Anglo secured the appointment of a bankruptcy receiver to the group’s main international company, Quinn Investments Sweden, in a Stockholm court on July 5th.

The bank secured an Irish court order the previous week stopping the family from changing the ownership structures of the international companies or transferring assets out of the group into a mirror corporate structure known as The Cranaghan Foundation.

A legal action in the Irish High Court, due to be determined on September 9th, will decide which court has jurisdiction to hear the legal dispute between the sides.

The family wants the action heard in Cyprus, where it has obtained an injunction restraining Anglo from interfering with property assets. Anglo opposes this, saying it could delay the recovery of €500 million in loans. A hearing will take place on Tuesday in the Cypriot action in Nicosia.