Asters, working with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, has successfully represented the interests of PrivatBank in two parallel arbitration proceedings before the London Court of International Arbitration regarding the enforcement of eurobonds issued in 2010 and 2013.
PrivatBank is the largest bank in Ukraine in terms of the number of clients, assets value, loan portfolio, and taxes paid to the national budget, according to the firm.
Asters announced the proceedings were “brought in 2017 by UK SPV Credit Finance, the issuer, and Madison Pacific Trust Limited, the trustee, concerning the enforcement of eurobonds issued in 2010 for USD 200 million and 2013 for USD 175 million. The Eurobonds' proceeds were used to finance the relevant Loan Agreements advanced by the Issuer to the Bank that were subsequently bailed-in in the course of the Bank's nationalization in December 2016.”
According to the firm, “following the Bank of England's decision to recognize the Ukrainian bail-in and thus discharge as a matter of English law, all of PrivatBank’s obligations under the relevant loan agreements as of the date of the bail-in in December 2016, on September 3, 2021, the tribunal issued final awards dismissing all claims against PrivatBank and declaring that it has no liability under the loan agreements. The total sum of principal and interest under the four loan agreements, the bail-in of which has been recognized in England, is in excess of USD 1 billion.”
Earlier this year, Asters represented PrivatBank before the Supreme Court of Ukraine in a case relating to the bank's nationalization (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on August 3, 2022), as well as in a UAH 152 million office building ownership dispute (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on May 5, 2022).
Asters’ team included Co-Managing Partner Oleksiy Didkovskiy, Counsel Anna Tkachova, and Associate Maksym Zeltser.
