Swissport International (SPI, Switzerland) has sent letters to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk asking to personally control the case on ownership rights to Interavia (earlier Swissport Ukraine) and ensure rule of law and protection of foreign investors.
“We ask you as head of state to pay attention to the case of our subsidiary, the artificially created problems of which appeared when the previous authorities were in power and have not yet been settled,” reads a letter to Poroshenko, a copy of which has been sent to Interfax-Ukraine.
The Swiss company said that the recent decisions of Ukrainian judges make thinking that the non-reformed Ukrainian justice remains a rather inefficient tool in settling corporate disputes.
Last year, on March 27, Swissport lost its stake of 70.6 percent and ownership rights to joint venture Swissport Ukraine, the company said. The JV became a victim of an illegal seizure after the unfair litigation launched by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), and rumor has it that the company fully belongs to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region. According to our information, the co-owner of UIA Aron Maiberg orchestrates the campaign, Swissport International said.
The Swiss company said that in October 2013 the Higher Economic Court of Ukraine ruled in favor of Swissport, and in May 2014 the company received another ruling in its favor from the economic court of Kyiv, but in early October 2014 the UIA’s counterclaim was satisfied, despite the fact that Swissport additionally received the final and legally binding ruling in the company’s favor.
Swissport has expressed deep concern that Ukrainian authorities are inert and silent, and it seems that they took up position of a passive observer in the issue of the obvious violation of rights of the foreign investor, the company said.
The company will file a counterclaim against the latest ruling to the Higher Economic Court of Ukraine.
