Court removes freeze on Kerimov stake in PIK
MOSCOW. April 3(Interfax) - A court in Cyprus has lifted is freeze on the 8.29% stock interest of OJSC Company Group PIK belonging to the company Holborner Services Ltd., which is associated with Suleiman Kerimov, effective March 29, PIK said.
"On 29 March 2012, a Cypriot court issued an order on discharging the injunction against Holborner dated September 30, 2011 following an ex parte application filed by Forienst Investment Limited ("Forienst")," PIK said. "The injunction concerned an 8.29% stake in OSJC PIK ("PIK") owned by Holborner and in relation to which Forienst has a call option right (exercisable during a two year period from 16 March 2012), the company said. "The said injunction ceased to be in force starting from 29 March 2012," it said.
Holborner said it had met all its obligations to the counteragent and there were no grounds for the freeze.
As of last spring, Forienst held 10.5% of the stock in PIPK, but the developer announced at end-May that that stake had decreased to 0.000002%.
Holborner has 20% of the stock in PIK, and Kerimov's Nafta Moskva holds another 18.3% via Lacero Trading Ltd.
PIK is one of Russia's biggest developers. The company's IPO in 2006 was the largest in the history of European real estate ($1.85 billion). Declining demand on the real estate market amid the world economic crisis and consequent problems with debt servicing led to a plunge in the group's capitalization. In the spring of 2009, Nafta Moskva bought into PIK capital with the acquisition of 25% of shares from company founders Yury Zhukov and Kirill Pisarev in exchange for help with debt restructuring.