COMMENTARY BY KSENIA RIF ON PRAVO.RU
The Arbitration Court of the Chelyabinsk Region will decide whether it is possible to recover damages from a state-owned company for the consolidation of power grids.
- Summer 2018: the grid organization "AES Invest" ceases operations and, in order to avoid interruptions in the supply of electricity to consumers, leases all property to the company "Uralresurs".
- Fall 2019: bankruptcy proceedings are opened against "AES Invest" (case No. A76-43527/2018), the company refuses the lease agreement due to the debts accumulated by "Uralresurs" and entered into the contractual relations (with the approval of the general meeting of creditors) with "MRSK Urala" (formerly - "Rosseti Ural").
- Fall 2023: "MRSK Urala" buys out the assets of "AES Invest" put up for sale at auction: electrical substations, transformer substations, power transmission lines.
- Autumn 2024: the new bankruptcy trustee demands to recover 4.2 billion rubles from the previous the bankruptcy trustee and "MRSK Urala" for losses caused by the conclusion of an unfavorable lease agreement and the sale of assets.
The applicant: the debtor did not receive income from the operation of the electric grid complex and was unable to carry out its core business. After the termination of the contract with "Uralresurs", the previous bankruptcy trustees hould have hired employees, received a tariff for the provision of services and proposed ways to finance the activities in order to resume the organization's work, and not sell the assets.
The defendants:
- the issue of the market value of the lease is not included in the subject of proof
- it has been prejudicially established that the lease amount is not understated
- the lease rate was approved by the majority of creditors and the secured creditor
- the Bankruptcy Law does not require extracting the maximum profit from the use of the debtor's property - this is not a priority.
Commenting on the stated claims, Ksenia Rif, an adviser to the Bankruptcy practice at Infralex, draws attention to the following circumstances of the dispute:
“…The defendant acquired the power grid complex at an open auction, so it will be difficult to prove that the transaction price was underestimated.”
Ksenia also noted that the lease and subsequent buyout of assets by the state corporation can be considered as the implementation of a public interest — ensuring uninterrupted power supply.
“The method for assessing the amount of rent is of great importance for the dispute. The manager proposes to focus on the market value, but in the context of regulated activities, it seems more reasonable to calculate the “equilibrium” value taking into account industry restrictions and tariff regulation,” the expert clarifies.