Kemerovo aviation goes into administration after court judgement

Published: 6/8/1999

On May 31st 1999, the Kemerovo aviation company was placed under administration by the Kemerovo regional court of arbitration, in response to action by the Federal Bankruptcy Service (Concise Aerospace 30th January 1999). The bankruptcy proceedings declared that the company had 101m roubles in debt, including 10.8m roubles to the federal budget and 13m roubles to the pension fund. The court revealed that, in order to pay budget debts, almost all assets had been transferred to the city-owned Kemerovo Airport. The Kemerovo company is unlikely to emerge from administration as an independent entity, given aggressive competition from SIBIR in western Siberia. In fact, there has been speculation already that it is likely to gain control of the Kemerovo company. The Aerokuznetsk company, based in Novokuznetsk in the Kemerovskaya Oblast, has also come under bankruptcy proceedings. The airline has 1300 employees and operates a fleet of Tu-154s, An-24s and An-26s and a small helicopter fleet. So far, Mr Viktor Belozyorov of Aerokuznetsk has succeeded in stabilising the situation at the company by leasing aircraft and rescheduling on the Moscow and Sochi routes. Aerokuznetsk is therefore optimistic about the outcome of its 12 months of its court administration. Given SIBIR expansion plans, however, they must also be considered as a potential takeover target.

Article ID: 565