American funds won the courts for control over the Olimpex grain terminal in the Odessa port
American investment funds Argentem Creek Partners and Innovatus Capital Partners gained control over the grain terminal “Olympex” in the Odesa port after a protracted legal battle with the previous owners. About this informs Financial Times.
Investors won international arbitration for $150 million, and also won a number of victories in British courts. The Supreme Court of Ukraine put the final point in the case last week. The “Olympex” terminal, with an annual throughput of about 5 million tons, is one of the largest in Ukraine.
“The terminal was a key center of “black grain” in Odesa, probably the largest”, – said John Patton, partner of Argentem Creek.
At the end of June, the previous owners — Serhiy Groza and Volodymyr Naumenko from GNT Group — were notified of suspected fraud. Investigators believe that they “simulated the destruction” of grain after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in order to avoid repayment of the debt. GNT Group denies the allegations, saying Argentem Creek actually used the loans for a hostile takeover of the business.
The funds intend to resume terminal operations in the summer or early fall. On February 8, 2024, the High Court of England and Wales confirmed the worldwide seizure of assets for $118 million imposed on the co-owners of the terminal — Groza and Naumenko. Their attempt to appeal the trial court’s decision, which froze assets in the Argentem Creek and Innovatus lawsuit, failed. The total amount of debt, together with interest, reached $150 million, involved in the development of the terminal.
We will remind you that the legal battles surrounding “Olympex” have been going on since 2022. The borrower is GNT Group, controlled by Groza and Naumenko. The guarantors are GNT Trade DMCC, G.N.T. Inland Elevators, the Swiss Omega Terminal and the Ukrainian company MetalzUkraine. Both businessmen are also liable as individuals. The loan was supposed to be repaid by December 2021, but this did not happen.
The materials of the British court show that Groza and Naumenko owned equally the company GN Terminal Enterprises Ltd (Cyprus), which managed three subsidiary structures, including “Olympex Coupe International”. According to YouControl data, as of April 23, 2024, Groza was no longer among the owners of “Olympex” — his place was taken by Oleksandr Gorbunov, whom creditors’ lawyers call Groza’s stepson.
According to an estimate by PriceWaterhouseCoopers in 2020, the “Olympex” terminal cost between $321 and $366 million. The alternative valuation of the GNT company, carried out for the counterclaim “Crow Ukraine”, was $250-325 million. In April 2024, the Western Commercial Court of Appeal satisfied the demand of creditors regarding the change of the manager of “Olympex Coupe International”.
