The Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal has revised the terms of the revolving credit line agreement between the operator of a chain of children’s toys stores Hamleys (“Vanderkind”) businessman Alexander Mamut and the non-core assets bank “Trust”, follows from the file of arbitration cases. It indicates that the court overturned the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court, which refused the retailer to forcibly change the terms of the agreement with Trust in order to restructure debts in the amount of almost 2.6 billion rubles, and adopted a new judicial act.
The court agreed with the position of the plaintiff that the restrictions on coronavirus led to a decrease in the financial performance of the retailer, and this is the basis for revising the contract on the basis of Art. 451 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Vanderkind’s lawyer, managing partner of the Chernyshov, Lukoyanov & Partners law firm, told Vedomosti. Grigory Chernyshov. He recalled that the company went to court with a demand to extend the debt repayment period under the credit line by about 5.5 billion rubles. (3 billion rubles of the debt has already been repaid, the rate is 7.5%), exclude interest payments for the entire duration of the coronavirus restrictions.
“The court agreed that the loan repayment period should be the end of 2022, and during the coronavirus restrictions regime, interest on the loan is not paid. And after the restrictions are lifted, interest is paid, but at a reduced rate – 1/2 of the Central Bank’s refinancing rate, ”Chernyshov said. As stated in Vanderkind’s lawsuit, the company repaid debts using proceeds from the Hamleys chain of stores, but after their closure during the period of restrictions it was not able to receive proceeds from the main activity and, as a result, was unable to repay part of the principal debt in the amount of 500 million rub. by the due date – until December 31, 2020. This payment was postponed to December 31, 2022, the lawyer clarified. Trust did not respond to Vedomosti’s request at the time of publication of the material.
As stated in Vanderkind’s lawsuit, the company repaid debts using proceeds from the Hamleys chain of stores, but after their closure during the period of restrictions it was not able to receive proceeds from the main activity and, as a result, was unable to repay part of the principal debt in the amount of 500 million rub. by the due date – until December 31, 2020. This payment was postponed to December 31, 2022, the lawyer clarified.
Trust did not respond to Vedomosti’s request at the time of publication of the material.
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