MOSCOW, March 2 (RAPSI) — The owners of “Tomet LLC”, which is in the process of bankruptcy, have offered creditors to conclude a settlement agreement by writing off 69.2 billion rubles ($933 million at the current exchange rate) of claims against the debtor. Uralchem's representatives explained why accepting these conditions was impossible. 

“The owners of “Tomet LLC” seem to have deliberately prepared an obviously unacceptable proposal in order to accuse URALCHEM of a contentious position on the issue of bankruptcy of their company. Let me remind you that it was PJSC” Togliattiazot” that initiated the “Tomet LLC” bankruptcy procedure. Now, when the bankruptcy commissioner has analyzed the debtor's financial condition and confirmed the impossibility of fulfilling its obligations, it is clear that the only way to fulfill obligations to creditors and continue Tomet's operations is the arrival of a serious investor who will put things in order at the company” - Dmitry Tatyanin, the Legal Affairs Director of Uralchem, has commented on the situation.

The proposal to write off most of the claims against the debtor from the total debt in the amount of 87.7 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) comes from “Triumph Development Limited”, which owns “Tomet LLC”. The terms of the settlement were published on “Tomet’s” website at the end of February and, according to the lender, raised a number of questions. 

First, the draft settlement agreement contains no information about the compensations in favor of “Togliattiazot” (TOAZ), which are included in the bankruptcy case. At the same time, Uralchem, appointed by the court as a claimant with regard to this claim, intends to ensure that the compensation in favor of TOAZ will make the maximum possible amount of the debt. It is not possible to realize this intention within the framework of the terms of the settlement agreement.

Second, the owner of “Tomet LLC” offers creditors a grace period of seven years and debt forgiveness of about 70 billion rubles ($944 million), without specifying the possible benefits to the recipients of this plan.

Third, the write-off of the debt of 69.2 billion rubles will in no way resolve the situation with Tomet's insolvency, because upon completion of this procedure the company will have to pay a tax of 20% - 14 billion rubles ($189 million). However, Tomet's asset balance sheet is only 11 billion rubles ($148 million), which leads to the conclusion that it is impossible for “Tomet LLC” to fulfill this promise.

"Thus, such a transaction obviously cannot lead to the restoration of the debtor's solvency, but will only entail a change in the main creditor”, Uralchem representatives believe.

Finally, the draft settlement agreement does not offer any way of securing the fulfillment of the debtor's obligations: property pledge, surety, or bank guarantee. This may indicate that the initiator of the deal does not really intend to perform it.

Last week, the first meeting of “Tomet LLC” creditors took place; after the meeting  the temporary manager of “Tomet LLC” Anatoly Selishchev told RAPSI about the most effective mechanisms for fulfilling obligations both to the creditors and to the company's employees. http://www.rapsinews.com/publications/20210226/306803525.html 

It is to be reminded that Tomet's obligations to “Uralchem” in the amount of 87.7 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) arose after the Komsomolsk District Court of the city of Togliatti convicted the beneficiaries of PJSC Togliattiazot Vladimir Makhlai and Sergey Makhlai and their foreign partners in a fraud case related to the TOAZ export operations in 2008 through 2011.

Out of this amount, more than 77.3 billion rubles (about $1 billion) are to be paid as compensation for the damages suffered by PJSC Togliattiazot and 10.3 billion rubles ($140 million) are due to Uralchem.

According to the court's decision, Tomet, owned by offshore company Triumph Development Limited, was found to be one of the defendants. The offshore company is controlled by convicted Swiss businessman Andreas Zivy, who is a partner of the Makhlais.