AS Irkutsk Region refused the local company Vitim Zolotaya, which develops the project for ore gold at the Kopylovskoye field, in a lawsuit against the Swedish Kopy Goldfields AB.
the Russian company demanded to sharply reduce the price of the purchase of a gold mining, concluded several years ago. Back in 2018, “Vitim Zolotaya” bought a 100% share from the Swedes in the authorized capital of Tagozhnoye, which owned gold mining licenses in the Irkutsk region. The amount of the transaction amounted to $ 6 million. However, in 2021, two of the four licenses of the Tayzhnoye were terminated ahead of schedule.
This fact became the basis for the lawsuit. “Vitim Golden” demanded to change the contract and reduce the purchase price to 175.3 million rubles, claiming that the asset was significantly depreciated.
the court, however, sided with the Swedish company. It turned out that before the transaction, the Russian buyer conducted a many -month check and knew about all the risks, including possible problems with licenses. Experts directly warned the plaintiff that urgent commissioning of deposits and significant financial investments was needed.
the key point was that the price in the contract was clearly recorded and did not depend on the future state of licenses. In addition, after the recall of “Vitim Golden” licenses, he signed the utility preparations about transferring the terms of payment three times, never disputing the initial cost.
the court also did not take into account the argument on the action of the decree on unfriendly countries, since the transaction was concluded long before its appearance. The decision can be appealed to the appeal.
Owners of Vitim Golden LLC are LLC SZ Polyanka 60 (50%,) owned by Maria Chivirev, as well as VOLKOV Vitaliy (30%) and Kostenevich Vyacheslav (20%).
