Case on City.com company's bankruptcy won't affect work of eponymous chain, says Unitrade Group

17:47

The bankruptcy procedures of City.com Ltd. (Kyiv) will not affect the work of the City.com supermarket chain, Dina Antypova, the marketing director at Unitrade Group, which operates the City.com chain, has told Interfax-Ukraine.

"City.com now has nothing in common with the chain's operation activities. The chain is managed by Personal Electronics Ltd., and the right to the trademarks belong to Volodymyr Kolodiuk [Unitrade Group president]," she said.

Antypova also noted that Kolodiuk and Unitrade Group in early 2010 won a case concerning the right of ownership to City.com company, Unitrade Svit (Unitrade World), Melofon, Service Master, but the court ruling was not executed.

"We cannot respond to this claim [on declaring City.com bankrupt]. Many banks have claims regarding credit repayment, [but] we do not know what claim was taken as the basis for the case [on bankruptcy]," she said.

Since the end of 2008, Volodymyr Kolodiuk and his brother Andriy Kolodiuk have been in conflict over the ownership of the companies of Unitrade Group holding. The protracted conflict led to the blocking of accounts of the number of legal entities and the cessation of payments on City.com's bonds.

In the spring of 2009, Unitrade Group's brands, on particular the trading chains Unitrade, City.com, Melofon and Service Master, were transferred by V. Kolodiuk to the management of a new legal entity, Personal Electronics Ltd. (Kyiv). But V. Kolodiuk and his partner Volodymyr Dobrovolsky lost a controlling stake in this company, passing it to creditors with the right to buy it back. In autumn 2009, V. Kolodiuk estimated the total debt of the holding to creditors at over UAH 100 million.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2009, the debt of City.com to banks was UAH 121.25 million, that on A series bonds was UAH 42.57 million, and that on B series bonds UAH 26.77 million.