On March 13, 2024, the District Court of Nicosia (Republic of Cyprus) granted the application by Sergiy Groza and Volodymyr Naumenko, owners of the Ukrainian GNT Group. It set aside an order appointing a provisional liquidator for G.N. Terminal Enterprises Limited, the Group’s holding company (Cyprus). GNT Group issued a press release to report this.

The provisional liquidator was appointed unlawfully on March 10, 2023, at the request of Argentem Creek Partners (ACP), a creditor.

The judges also reversed all the provisional liquidator’s decisions and required the latter to provide a report of all their actions while in the office within 20 days of the decision date.

According to the beneficiaries, the ACP began a corporate raid of the Group’s business in late 2022, whose core assets are concentrated at the grain terminal of the Odesa Commercial Sea Port. A number of actions taken by the creditor point to it.

For instance, in late December 2022, directors and registered offices of the Group’s subsidiaries engaged in transshipping grain in the seaport (Olimpex Coupe International, ZPK Inzernoexport, Metalsukraine Corp LTD) were unlawfully replaced or changed from Odesa to Lviv. In 2023, both the court and the Ministry of Justice declared actions of the registrar Yurii Kozlov in favor of ACP and the detriment of Olimpex Coupe International illegal.

In 2023, the ACP initiated bankruptcy proceedings against Olimpex Coupe International and Metalsukraine Corp LTD.

In March 2023, the creditor appointed a provisional liquidator to the Group’s parent company, G.N. Terminal Enterprises, which was named as the borrower in a USD 75 million loan deal with Argentem. This appointment has now been set aside. ACP’s representatives failed to notify the owners of the provisional liquidator’s appointment.

In May 2023, ACP initiated the winding-up of GNT Trade DMCC (Dubai). This company is the founder of the above-mentioned Ukrainian companies. This winding-up procedure is also currently contested in court.

GNT Group’s owners believe that all ACP’s actions were aimed at deliberately reducing the value of assets to take over the Group’s entire business as cheaply as possible and then resell it.

“In his interviews with the media, John Patton, ACP’s regional manager, keeps emphasizing that he is an investor in a Ukrainian grain terminal. This is a blatant manipulation. The Fund issued a loan to us on harsh terms. In December 2022, despite the active phase of restructuring negotiations and our search for investors, the ACP launched a corporate raid on GNT Group's business. But if you are an investor, who has established control and has decided to use the debtor's assets to develop the business, why would you liquidate it” Volodymyr Naumenko notes.

According to media reports, ACP’s regional manager, John Patton, negotiated a potential sale of GNT Group’s business to a third party in Vienna in November 2022, even though he was not its owner.

According to beneficiaries, ACP’s actions are causing significant harm to Ukraine during the most difficult times caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The press release states, “The decision of the District Court of Nicosia (Cyprus) gives hope that justice and the rights of the holding company’s owners will be restored.”

On July 6, 2023, the District Court of Nicosia (Cyprus) issued an order prohibiting the creditor-appointed provisional liquidator from taking any actions and engaging in any transactions on behalf of G.N. Terminal Enterprises Ltd and from doing anything to wind up its direct and indirect subsidiaries. Prior to that, on February 7, 2023, the same court prohibited ACP and the receiver it appointed from taking action to sell or appropriate the grain terminal in the seaport of Odesa and the dry port.

According to earlier reports, GNT Group remained engaged in litigation against Argentem Creek Partners and Innovatus and contemplated a counterclaim against its opponents’ facility agent, alleging collusion aimed to take over the Ukrainian holding company’s business and inflict multiple millions of damages.