Ukraine: Notification principle in the registration of termination of an individual entrepreneur’s activities

On July 7, 2014 the Bill of Ukraine “On amendments to some legislative acts of Ukraine to simplify the state registration procedure for termination of business activities of individual entrepreneurs based on the notification principle” dated 13.05.2014 No.1258-VII was passed into law (hereinafter the Law). The main purpose of the Law is to facilitate the procedures for the termination of business activities of individual entrepreneurs and reduce the term for such termination to 1 day.

The Law amends the Civil and Commercial Code of Ukraine as well as the laws of Ukraine "On State Registration of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs," "On the collection and accounting of a single fee for obligatory state social insurance," "On restoring the debtor's solvency or declaring it bankrupt," etc.

According to the proposed amendments, termination of an individual entrepreneur’s business activities will be registered immediately upon receipt of the entrepreneur’s appropriate expression of will (in the form of a registration card), without the right of regulatory bodies to block such registration. It should be noted that bankruptcy procedure applies to debts that have arisen in connection with the entrepreneur’s business activities, even if the person has lost its entrepreneur status.

It should be noted that if before the entry into force of the Law an individual entrepreneur applied for termination of her/his business activities but failed to submit the registration card for state registration of the termination, the state registrar shall complete a registration card for state registration of the termination of business activities at the entrepreneur’s own decision no later than 1 month from the date of entry into force of the Law, shall make a record on state registration of termination of the business activities in the Unified State Register and shall issue (mail with a list of enclosures) a notice of that record to the relevant individual.

Fugitive Kazakh Banker Loses Final Appeal in UK

The UK Supreme Court has rejected former BTA Chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov’s last-chance appeal of a judgment prohibiting him from defending himself against BTA Bank’s claims due to serious contempt of the court and failure to turn himself into British authorities, according to a copy of the order obtained by RAPSI Tuesday. Notably, an appeal representing his interests has been filed by Ablyazov’s attorneys although the man himself remains missing. According to the order, Ablyazov’s appeal failed to “raise an arguable point of law of general public importance which ought to be considered by the Supreme Court at this time.” The court further ordered Ablyazov to pay BTA’s legal costs in connection with the appeal. BTA Bank Managing Director Pavel Prosyankin lauded the decision in a statement issued Tuesday: “Today’s decision marks the end of Mr Ablyazov’s legal manoeuvring and will expedite the enforcement of the significant judgments we have won. The Supreme Court’s decision reinforces the Bank’s ability to start to reverse the processes by which Mr Ablyazov fraudulently diverted assets from the Bank. We remain committed to the process to help restore the Bank’s financial standing which was devastated by Mr Ablyazov’s actions.” BTA’s case against Ablyazov was launched in early 2009 after the Kazakh government acquired a stake in BTA and the bank came under the control of its Samruk-Kazyna Sovereign Fund. Its by-then former chairman Ablyazov fled the country at that point, heading to the UK. Since then, BTA Bank has filed 11 claims against its former chairman, totaling approximately $6 billion.

http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20130226/266535432.html

BP Appeals against Russian $3 Bln Award

Russia's Eighth Commercial Court of Appeals has set October 25 as the date to hear BP Russian Investment Limited's (BPRI) appeal against a court decision in a case filed by TNK-BP minority shareholder Andrei Prokhorov, awarding 100.4 billion rubles ($3.21 billion) to TNK-BP, the court spokesperson said. The Tyumen Regional Commercial Court partially upheld Prokhorov's claims on August 6. Prokhorov had filed a suit for 288 billion rubles ($9.23 billion) in damages against BPRI and BP plc. The legal action stems from the allegation that BP PLC (parent company of BP Russian Investments Limited) and BP Russian Investments Limited, acting as TNK-BP Limited shareholders, forced their boards to turn down a proposal by TNK-BP Holding for a strategic partnership with Rosneft and a purchase of its shares. This lost opportunity allegedly inflicted losses on TNK-BP Holding. According to BP attorney Konstantin Lukoyanov, the lawsuits against the BP companies are absurd and frivolous.

http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20120925/264774261.html
http://www.bfm.ru/articles/2012/07/27/prohorov-zarabotal-dlja-tnk-bp-holdinga-100-mlrd-rublej.html

Putin Hopes for Settlement between Nornickel Major Shareholders

President Vladimir Putin has expressed hope that the Norilsk Nickel Mining and Metallurgical Company's major shareholders will reach a settlement to benefit the company and its personnel. The conflict concerns two shareholders - Rusal owner Oleg Deripaska (25 percent) and Interros owner Vladimir Potanin (28 percent). Last July, while serving as the prime minister, Putin also voiced his hope that a quick resolution would be found to the conflict. Norilsk Nickel is the world's largest producer of nickel, palladium, cobalt, copper and rhodium. According to Vedomosti's unnamed Kremlin sources, Putin's administration has developed a plan of a settlement, which includes the sale by one or both shareholders of their shares.

http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20120820/264341440.html
http://www.vedomosti.ru/companies/news/3076721/prinuzhdenie_k_miru

Navalny's High-Profile Rosneft Lawsuit Dismissed

The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has upheld the Moscow Commercial Court’s decision dismissing Rosneft minority shareholder Alexei Navalny’s lawsuit over the production of company documents. Thus, the court has dismissed his appeal and the first instance court's ruling has come into effect. The dispute over whether Rosneft should provide Navalny with the meeting minutes has passed through courts in three instances and has continued for more than two years. Navalny filed the lawsuit because he believed the contracts were not on an arm's length basis.

http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20120806/264129385.html

Anti-Kremlin Campaigner Elected to Aeroflot Board

Minority shareholder lawyer, anti-corruption blogger and opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been elected to the board of directors of Russia’s largest airline, Aeroflot, at the airline’s annual shareholders’ meeting. Navalny was nominated by the National Reserve Bank controlled by businessman Alexander Lebedev whose structures hold about 15 percent in the flagship airline. The controlling stake of 51.17 percent is held by the Russian government.

http://en.rian.ru/business/20120625/174231394.html
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1966851

BP to Sell Stake in Russian Joint Venture

BP has announced that it will try to sell its stake in the TNK-BP Russian oil joint venture. In a short statement, the oil company said it had received "unsolicited indications of interest" in acquiring its shares. BP has informed the other shareholder in TNK-BP, Alfa Access Renova, that it plans to pursue a sale. It warned that there was no guarantee that such a transaction would take place. Earlier in the week, Mikhail Fridman, TNK-BP's chief executive, announced he would be stepping down in 30 days "for personal reasons". TNK-BP is a joint venture between BP and Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR), a group of Russian billionaires that includes Mr Fridman. Relations between the shareholders have been particularly strained since BP had to abandon plans to form another joint venture with rival Russian oil firm Rosneft last year after AAR launched a legal challenge.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18292483
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7075084 (document)

Russian Lawyer Makes Time Magazine List of World's 100 Most Influential People

Russian lawyer, anti-corruption blogger, and opposition leader Alexei Navalny was the only Russian named by Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential figures. Originally Navalny became known as an anti-corruption and minority shareholder activist. He has risen to prominence as one of the leaders of a burgeoning opposition movement that has gathered strength following mass protests over alleged vote fraud in December's State Duma elections.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/navalny-makes-time-magazine-list-of-worlds-100-most-influential-people/457111.html
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2111976_2112167,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Navalny (photo)

Putin Orders Share Buyback

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin instructed the country's No.2 bank, VTB, to compensate small investors who lost money in its stock market flotation. Shares in VTB, which is 75.5 percent government owned, are trading at around 7 kopecks, just over half the price of 13.6 kopecks at which they were floated in 2007 when over 100,000 small investors bought the stock during its so-called “people’s IPO.” Answering a question of an unhappy foreign investor at an investor conference, Putin offered to buy back VTB's shares at the original issue price. "I can instruct the bank's management to work out a plan to buy back these shares so that you do not suffer any losses," Putin said. Calling on a surprised Andrei Kostin, the head of VTB who happened to be sitting in the audience, the prime minister announced that they would meet to discuss a share buy-back on Monday. The buyback should cost the bank about $500 mln.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/02/russia-putin-vtb-idUSL5E8D24SC20120202
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5583c0c6-4dbf-11e1-a66e-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1lIYqs4hw

Fugitive Russian Prosecutors Wanted

A Moscow court sanctioned the arrest of Dmitry Urumov, until recently a senior prosecution officer in the Moscow Region. Urumov, together with other Moscow Region prosecutors, is charged with bribery and protection of illegal gambling business. Urumov was taken into custody. Also arrested was former Chief Prosecutor of Noginsk Vladimir Glebov. Two of their colleagues, including former Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Moscow Region Alexander Ignatenko, are now wanted. According to some reports, the fugitive prosecutors have fled to Spain.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1636667
http://www.vesti.ru/videos?vid=335720 (video)

London Tribunal Seizes Bank of Moscow Shares

A London arbitration tribunal has seized a minority stake in the Bank of Moscow, creating a potential obstacle to Russian's No.2 bank, VTB, as it attempts to buy the company. VTB wants to increase its Bank of Moscow stake to 100 percent despite strong resistance from its management, and it has also agreed to buy 3.88 percent from Goldman Sachs to gain control. A commercial arbitration court in London, however, seized Goldman Sachs' stake after a company tied to Bank of Moscow's president and major shareholder, Andrei Borodin, filed a complaint. The apparent basis for the complaint is that Goldman Sachs had to offer its stake to Bank of Moscow first.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/03/vtb-bankofmoscow-idUSLDE7220RZ20110303
http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article/255992/vtb_zastryal_v_londone

Gazprom Management Accused of Self-Dealing

Leading Russian business newspaper Vedomosti published an article saying that many major suppliers of Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom are associated with friends of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and with top managers of Gazprom itself. The newspaper checked the publicly available data about Gazprom suppliers against the publicly available data on the ownership of the suppliers and discovered that several suppliers are associated with three Gazprom Board members (owned by their relatives, etc.). The managers categorically deny any conflict of interest. As for affiliation, one of the managers in question, Alexander Ananenkov, ironically commented: “According to Darwin’s theory, we descended from a monkey and, accordingly, are relatives; therefore we are all affiliated.”

http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article/254083/v_seme_ne_bez_gazproma

Russian Investigators: Transneft Searches Unrelated to Navalny’s Publications

The Russian police conducted searches in a Moscow bank, and in the home of the bank's former owner, in connection with a criminal investigation into alleged embezzlement at the Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft. The police deny any relation between their investigative actions and the recent publications of well-known lawyer and blogger, Alexey Navalny, who exposed in his blog the alleged multi-billion dollar Transneft embezzlement.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1562624
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ird-R3QIHA (video)

Russia to Extradite Fugitive Kazakhstan Banker

The Moscow City Court approved the decision of the General Prosecutor's Office to extradite to Kazakhstan Veronika Yefimova, formerly a top manager of BTA Bank who Kazakh authorities accuse of a $3.3 bln embezzlement. The defense calls the charges baseless and politically motivated. In June 2010, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Russia to stay the extradition of Efimova pending ECHR’s ruling on Efimova's petition on the merits.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1554139&NodesID=6
http://eurasian-law-breaking-news.blogspot.com/2010/06/strasbourg-court-prohibits-russia-from.html

Russian CEO Prosecuted for Selling Trademark Abroad

Russia’s Investigation Committee brought the final version of charges against Maxim Larin, CEO of Afanasy-Pivo, a large brewery in Tver. Larin is accused of selling “Afanasy” trademarks in 1997-1999 at a nominal price to Eastern Union Holding AG, a Swiss company he allegedly controls. Since that time, some $17 mln has been paid to the Swiss company in royalties by Tver-Pivo, a Russian licensee, whose CEO, Yevgeny Kharitonkin, is also being prosecuted. Both Larin and Kharitonkin are charged with fraud and money laundering. Their defense attorneys insist that the trademark transfer was perfectly lawful and that the criminal prosecution was initiated by corporate raiders attempting to take over the company. The proceedings were originally instituted in 2002 upon the application of Aton, an investment company, which in 2002 acquired 42% of Afanasy-Pivo on behalf of Millhouse Capital, a company led by Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1553494&NodesID=6

Russia May Cut Stake in VTB To 50%

Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin announced today that Russia may privatize a portion of its share in VTB, the country's largest bank. Last year, the state increased its ownership stake in VTB from 77% to 85% in exchange for an injection of cash intended to stabilize the bank during the financial crisis. Today, Russia's government is facing a significant budget deficit and is looking at selling off part of its vast portfolio of assets to decrease the shortfall.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/state-may-cut-stake-in-vtb-to-50/414145.html (Moscow Times, 30 August, 2010)

Rosneft Oil Company to Invest $630M in UAE Joint Venture

Rosneft will invest $630 million in a joint project with a United Arab Emirates oil firm to drill for gas in the Middle East. Production is planned for 2013 at a field estimated to contain 70 billion cubic meters of gas and 16 million metric tons of gas condensate. This comes after last year’s consortium between Crescent Petroleum, Dana Gas, Austria’s OMV and Hungary’s MOL to pump enough gas from Iraq’s Kurdistan region to start the Nabucco pipeline to Europe via Turkey. The Nabucco pipeline will directly compete with Gazprom by lessening dependence on Russian gas.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/rosneft-to-invest-630m-in-crescent-venture/413425.html (Moscow Times 23 August 2010)

Russia’s Lukoil Gets $438M in Kazakh Deal

LUKoil will receive $438 million after filing a complaint against PetroKazakhstan in 2005 over an ownership dispute with China National Petroleum Corporation. The dispute arose when LUKoil sought to exercise a right of first refusal to buy PetroKazakhstan out from Turgai Petroleum in 2008. LUKoil and PetroKazakhstan will retain their 50 percent interests in Turgai Petroleum. PetroKazakhstan is jointly owned by state-run KazMunaiGaz and CNPC.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/lukoil-to-get-438m-in-kazakh-settlement/413409.html (Moscow Times 23 August 2010)

Egypt’s Sawiris, Russia’s VimpelCom Said to Discuss Merger

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris is in talks to merge his telecom assets, Egypt’s Orascom and Wind Italy, with VimpelCom Ltd. The merger would make Sawiris a significant minority in the new company. The merger would also give VimpelCom, Russia’s second largest mobile phone operator, access to African and Middle Eastern markets.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/egypts-sawiris-vimpelcom-said-to-discuss-merger/413412.html (Moscow Times 23 August 2010)

Russian Consumers Seen As a Bright Spot For U.S. Companies

The Russian consumer has emerged as one bright spot in second-quarter earnings reports of the largest U.S. multinational companies, including PepsiCo, McDonald's and Coca Cola. Russia is the largest consumer goods market in Europe, and recent economic data suggests that Russian consumers have put the financial crisis behind them and have resumed spending, even as consumer spending in the U.S., U.K. and every other Western country remains muted compared to the pre-crisis period.

http://gulfnews.com/business/retail/russian-consumers-give-american-firms-good-reason-to-celebrate-1.666086