The hearing at the Arbitration Court of Appeal on assessment of the shipbuilding assets of United Industrial Corporation (UIC) was canceled due to default of representatives of several defendants, PortNews reports citing the United Shipbuilding Corporation’s press service.
USC claims to purchase shipyards of UIC. The court hearing was carried over to the end of December 2010. The USC believe that the dispute hearing of the case are expected to lengthy. "We are confident that the court would have recognized the validity of assets assessment made by the Central Bank, but that would not be desirable for UIC," USC officials said.
As a UIC’s spokesman commented with PortNews correspondent, some of the defendants were notified of the date and time of this court hearing, but the court postponed the hearing on December 23, 2010.
The assessment of United Industrial Corp.’s shipbuilding assets had reportedly been carried out by Russian Society of Appraisers and the Central Bank.
The UIC’s assets include JSC Baltic Shipyard, JSC Shipbuilding Plant Severnaya Shipyard, Design Bureau "Iceberg", the machine building and ancillary facilities.
In mid-June 2010 the UIC offered to sell its assets to USC appraising the shipyards at 88.9 billion rubles, while USC offered no more than 30 billion rubles. The transaction was expected to be finalized soon. In November it became known that the USC has acquired a 5% stake in the St. Petersburg-based Baltic Shipyard, at value $80-$115 a share.