VTB confirms plans to collect collateral for Khotin's debts; court to decide how to divide premises in Four Seasons Hotel
MOSCOW. July 30 (Interfax) - VTB has confirmed plans to seize apartments and hotel rooms in the five-star Four Seasons Hotel in central Moscow, which were used as collateral for loans to entities of Alexei Khotin, the former co-owner of Yugra Bank .
"We had loans for Khotin's entities, where the collateral was apartments and hotel rooms. A payment default was triggered on the loans for obvious reasons. As part of defending our property interests, we filed lawsuits to foreclose on the loans on the collateral that was properly executed under these loan agreements," VTB First Deputy Management Board Chairman and CFO Dmitry Pyanov told journalists.
VTB in mid-July filed a claim with the Moscow Arbitration Court to foreclose on the non-residential premises of the Forsi company, which owns the premises of the Four Seasons Hotel. VTB also wishes to cover the loan claims against the company from the proceeds from the sale of the mortgaged property.
Forsi LLC owns part of the building at 2 Okhotny Ryad, which functions as the luxury Four Seasons Hotel Moscow, according to the company's financial statements. The ultimate owner is listed as Cyprus-based Demovito Ltd.
Forsi's financial statements indicate that the company is the guarantor for a $300 million loan issued by VTB in 2015 to Cyprus-based Vesp Establishment Ltd, which is a party related to Forsi. According to the surety agreement, the subject of the collateral is premises totaling 36,800 square meters at 2 Okhotny Ryad. The book value of the collateral was estimated at 9.88 billion rubles at the end of 2023.
RBC reported in early April that the Meschansky District Court had imposed interim measures on the Modny Sezon shopping gallery near the Kremlin, whose beneficiary is considered to be Khotin. The premises of the facility at 2 Okhotny Ryad were seized on April 3, according to an extract from the Unified State Registry of Real Estate. The restrictions have also affected part of the premises of the Four Seasons Hotel Moscow, located in the same building as the gallery. The hotel premises were seized on behalf of the state in early June.
"From the point of view of Four Seasons and competition for this asset with our shareholder: How are we going to divide it? We have specific apartments and specific rooms registered, so we know what we have as collateral, and how we will divide it is up to our fairest court in the world to decide," Pyanov said when answering how VTB and the Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimuschestvo) would divide the asset.
On March 4, 2024, the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow sentenced Khotin to nine years in a general regime penal colony on charges of embezzlement of 23.6 billion rubles from Yugra Bank.
At the end of October 2022, Alfa-Bank filed a petition with the Moscow Arbitration Court to declare Khotin bankrupt. The Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) also filed a petition to join the case, requesting to introduce a property sale procedure against the entrepreneur, and include debts exceeding 180 billion rubles in the register of creditors.