MOSCOW, August 24 - RAPSI, Dmitry Shchitov. The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has upheld a lower courts judgment awarding $24.5 million to Rosbank in its suit against MIEL Investment and Development Holding, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) reports from the courtroom.

MIEL Suburban Real Estate filed an appeal against the commercial court decision.

At the request of Barviha-Village, hearings were held behind closed doors.

On May 20, the Moscow Commercial Court held in favor of Rosbank (part of the French Societe Generale (SG) financial group). Rosbank had sought $25,379,000 in damages. Defendants in the matter included: Barviha-Village, MIEL Real Estate, Zolotaya Milya (Golden Mile), MIEL 3C, and MIEL Suburban Real Estate. Savely Orbant was a third party to the proceedings.

The court decided that Rosbank had issued a $20 million special-purpose loan to Barviha-Village in May 2007, which was set to mature in May 2011. The co-defendants acted as guarantors to the loan.

After Barviha-Village defaulted on scheduled principal and interest payments, Rosbank sought early repayment of the loan in full.

MIEL Holding was founded in October 1990. In 1993, it was transformed into a real estate agency. Currently, MIEL is engaged in real estate, investment, and development, and consists of more than ten companies.
The merger of BSGV and Rosbank on June 30 completed the consolidation of Societe Generales Russian assets, transforming Rosbank into one of the five largest Russian banks in terms of credit portfolios.