Upon Gazprom Transgaz Yekaterinburg’s demand, the assets of Ural-Avstro-Invest have been seized. This decision was taken by Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court.

Ural-Avstro-Invest is considered to be the company that owns the International Trade Center, including Atrium Palace Hotel.

Gazprom Transgaz Yekaterinburg went to court asking to make Ural-Avstro-Invest pay 56.79m RUR it owed the company under a simple partnership agreement signed in 1998. Alongside the claim, the plaintiff also submitted a petition asking to secure the claim through the seizure of the defendant’s funds located in one of Yekaterinburg-based banks’ accounts. This included the money that could be transferred into this account in the future; the plaintiff also wanted some other assets (amounting to no more than the amount of claim) to be seized.

Ural-Avstro-Invest did not agree with the court’s ruling and claimed that the amount of debt or the length of the overdue period could not serve as evidence of the fact that it would be difficult to implement the court decree.

‘The defendant is a going concern that pays taxes and meets its third party obligations. In case its monetary assets are seized, the enterprise’s entire activity will collapse and the defendant won’t be able to make any profit,’ the company stated.

Gazprom Transgaz Yekaterinburg rejected its opponents’ arguments.

‘The debt comes to a rather large sum, the money has not been paid back for a long time, the repayment schedule is not complied with, the defendant now has a new director, and our negotiations with the said officials regarding the debt repayment have failed to produce any result. Finally, the defendant has been hiding from the plaintiff since November 2011 and has not been answering any phone calls as well as missing from its official place of residence,’ Gazprom Transgaz Yekaterinburg reports.

The arbitration court sustained the plaintiff’s petition.