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Kiev's Dynamo Soccer Team Seized
// On the demand of a minority shareholder
Struggle among Owners
The Pechersky District Court in Kiev has seized a package of stocks in that city's Dynamo soccer team in connection with a suit filed by Pacific International Sport Clubs, Ltd., the owner of 0.1 percent of Dynamo stock. The court made that decision on February 21, but it was made public only Wednesday. Pacific International Sport Clubs is connected with Russian businessman Konstantin Grigorishin. It filed suit on February 18 in connection with the sale of more than 98 percent of stock in the team to third parties. The current owner of the team is Rada Deputy Grigory Surkis of the Social-Democratic Party (United), which supported Viktor Yanukovich in the presidential elections.
Grigorishin was seen in the company of Viktor Yushchenko several times in the course of the Orange Revolution and promised in an interview with Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper last December to take Dynamo away from his former business partner Surkis. “Even though getting Dynamo is not a goal of mine, I will take it on principle. I have the stronger legal position,” he said then. He said that his former partner Surkis and former head of Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma's administration Viktor Medvedchuk were implicated in significant losses of assets he suffered in Ukraine, including stock packages in various Ukrainian electric companies. Grigorishin is also suing a number of electric companies that had held stock in that later came under Surkis's control.
As of August of last year, according to president of Dynamo Igor Surkis (Grigory's brother) in an interview with Ukrainian media he owned 20 percent of stock in Dynamo at that time; head of the council of founders of the club Valentin Zgursky owned 12 percent; the Dynamo Sports Society 10 percent; Soccer Marketing International, Ltd., 31 percent; Hambay Trading Corporation 9 percent; Pacific International Sport Clubs 18 percent. Grigorishin his share had already been watered down by a supplemental emission of stock. Before it, he had held 20 percent of the team's stock. After the last supplemental emission in the fall of 2004, Pacific International Sport Clubs' share in the team fell to 0.1 percent.
According to Pacific International Sport Clubs, the current shareholders in the team are Comerco Commercial, Ltd., (20.11 percent); Jestlic Ventures, Ltd., (19.88 percent); Cognimax Ventures, Ltd., (19.24 percent); Castorian Commercial, Ltd., (18.37 percent); Laomax Holdings, Ltd., (11.93 percent); Hambay Trading Corporation (9 percent); Dynamo Sports Society (1 percent), Soccer Marketing International, Ltd., (0.18percent); Igor Surkis (0.12 percent); and Valentin Zgursky (0.07 percent).
Last Friday, Nikolay Tomenko, Ukrainian deputy prime minister, announced that Dynamo may be renationalized. He noted that the state was forming a register of enterprises that were undervalued during their privatization. “And if Dynamo isn't in the first pool of enterprises to the returned to the state, it will be in the second. It could be a matter of a supplemental payment for the government stake if it was undervalued but the priority right should be given to the current owners,” he said.
Igor Surkis was quick to respond. He said in an interview on television channel 1 + 1 that “Tomenko shows in his conversations about returning the team to the state that he is simply incompetent in the matter. Dynamo was not state property and was not privatized. Tomenko is just confusing public opinion. Dynamo can be returned only by illegal methods. If the country is lawless, the there's no question about it. If they begin some sort of action against Dynamo, who will have clean hands?” he said.
Now there is no more open talk of returning Dynamo to the state, and other methods will be used to wrench the team from the hands of its current owners. The Pechersky District Court of Kiev ruled to seize 98.71 percent of the stock of the team, thus satisfying the demands of Pacific International Sport Clubs, which intends to file suit to restore its preemptive right to obtain those stocks. Grigorishin holds that the process of alienating 98.71 percent of the stock in the team on the proposal of Comerco Commercial, Ltd.; Cognimax Ventures Ltd.; Soccer Marketing International, Ltd., and others between 2000 and 2004 was a violation of Pacific International Sport Clubs' right to preemptive purchase of those stocks.
The courts ruling became effective immediately and can be appealed within 15 days. In the courts decision, it is written that the alienation of stock was carried out in violations of the law and without the knowledge of the owner of 0.1 percent of the stock in Dynamo. The court also demand the documents related to the alienation of 98.71 percent of the stock from the registering company, Registr, for examination.
Dynamo had no comment on the case on Wednesday, saying that the team's heads were out of the country.
Kommersant will follow the development of the events.
Taras Zagorodny
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 24, 2005
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