ІІІ Competition Forum: Penalty. Restructuring. Bankruptcy

ІІІ Competition Forum: Penalty. Restructuring. Bankruptcy, organized by the Ukrainian Bar Association, took place in Kiev on 17 November.

IMF Legal Department senior adviser, Chanda DeLong, opened the event and drew the attention of participants to the fact that reform of bankruptcy law is one of the necessary elements of a healthy commercial law system, and such reforms should be implemented with improvement of the enforcement system, tax legislation and greater transparency of the judicial system.

Participants were also welcomed by Dovydas Vitkauskas, project team leader of the EU Project “Support to Justice Sector Reforms in Ukraine” and Irina Serbin, chairman of UBA Committee on Enforcement Law.

Two judges of the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine, Oleksandr Udovichenko and Boris Polyakov, shared the novels of court practice regarding appeal against auction results.

Mr. Udovichenko highlighted problems that arise in determining the number of persons who can appeal against auction results. According to the speaker, the circle of such persons is understood too widely, although only the creditors, the debtor and the persons claiming the property have the right to appeal against the results of an auction. Furthermore, contradictions were identified, in a broad sense, of the grounds for recognizing a contract as invalid.

Mr. Polyakov, in his turn, explained the problems of determining the subject of an auction and the procedure for recognizing it as invalid.

Julian Khorunzhyi, senior partner of ARIO Law Firm, devoted his report to the refutation of the debtor’s property actions, vindication and recognition of transactions as invalid. According to him,  in December 2016 there have been several decisions by the Supreme Court of Ukraine, which consisted of the fact that the conclusion of a sales contract was the final stage of the auction because only at this moment did the transaction actually take place.

The general provisions of the Civil Code of Ukraine on the validity of a transaction may also be used as the framework for contesting the results of an auction.

Arthur Megeria, senior partner at L.I. Group, spoke about the conflict of interests between the participants of bankruptcy. In his opinion, the Bankruptcy Law should establish an exhaustive list of grounds under which arbitration managers are considered to be stakeholders, and also define a clear concept of conflict of interest.

Managing partner of Alekseev Boyarchukov & Partners, Sergey Boyarchukov, shared his views on the organization of the work of arbitration managers in the best manner. Mr. Boyarchukov noted that an arbitration manager should work with a large team, but not alone.

The final session was devoted to the topic of distressed assets. Agia Zagrebelskaya, state commissioner of theAntimonopoly Committee of Ukraine,gave consideration onthe impact of electronic trading on the market for the sale of assets, as well as the importance of competition for such a form of bidding.