The Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region accepted the claim of the Moscow LLC "Domestic Systems and Technologies" (OST) against PJSC "Shipbuilding Plant "Severnaya Verf" for 267.2 million rubles (including interest). According to Delovoy Peterburg, the first meeting is scheduled for June 19.
The reason for the proceedings was the state contract for the construction of a new boathouse of the Severnaya Verf for 7.8 billion rubles, concluded with the OST in 2020. However, the capital company went bankrupt: in December 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court declared the OST insolvent and opened bankruptcy proceedings, approving Andrei Moshkin as the arbitration manager.
Withdrawal of the logistics support vessel Vsevolod Bobrov from the boathouse (project 23120). Severnaya Verf
The press service of the shipyard "Severnaya Verf"
According to him, the company owes not only contractors, but also its employees – about 45 million rubles. By law, salary debts are paid before settlement with other creditors of the debtor.
"Basically, these are debts to employees who were just working in St. Petersburg on the construction of a shipbuilding complex under a contract with Severnaya Verf," Andrei Moshkin, the bankruptcy trustee of the OST, told DP. "In order to repay it, a number of lawsuits were filed, including against the Severnaya Verf for the amount of work performed but not paid for – 211 million rubles."
At the same time, Andrey Moshkin draws attention to the fact that metal structures supplied by the OST remained on the construction site, but Severnaya Verf does not allow the bankruptcy trustee to inspect and inventory them.
"This is a direct blow to the interests of the workers who worked here and, despite the salary delay, continued to fulfill the state contract until the last moment. The lawsuit has been filed, the dispute is not easy, but we have solid grounds for success and repayment of debts – at least to the employees of the OST," says Andrey Moshkin.
As DP notes, the claims of the OST and the Severnaya Verf under the contract for the construction of the boathouse are mutual. The shipbuilding company has submitted an application for the inclusion of 113.3 million rubles in the register of creditors' claims of the OST in the framework of the bankruptcy case of the Moscow company. However, the court has not yet considered the claims of shipbuilders.
Severnaya Verf, part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC, is managed by VTB Bank), has made three attempts to erect a new boathouse in recent years. The first contractor was Metrostroy, with which a contract worth 6.7 billion rubles was signed in 2017. The company went bankrupt without fulfilling its obligations.
The second contractor was the OST company. And at the end of 2022, the shipbuilders signed a third contract with PC RusGard LLC, its amount was not disclosed. The construction was expected to be completed in 2024. But in the autumn of 2023, the former head of Severnaya Verf, Igor Orlov, announced that the contract with Rusgard had been terminated, and the project itself had been suspended.
At the end of May this year, VTB CEO Andrey Kostin said in an interview with Fontanka that the bank plans to modernize the St. Petersburg enterprises of the USC, which is planned to begin with the Severnaya Verf.
The shipyard needs a new boathouse in order to build ships of larger displacement.
