Uzbekistan, Tashkent, July 1 / Trend D.Azizov /
An auction for the sale of property belonging to FE LLC Uzdunrobita (a subsidiary of JSC MTS in Uzbekistan), which was scheduled for July 1, did not take place due to lack of applications, the real estate company carrying out the auction told Trend on Monday.
As was previously reported, according to the minutes of the meeting of creditors adopted on May 31, Uzdunrobita property was put up for auction in conjunction with the establishment of the initial starting price of $600 billion soums.
The amount of the deposit for participation at the auction should have been 20 per cent from the initial selling price of the property. Applications for participation at the auction were being accepted until June 28, 2013.
The company said that the date of the next auction will be determined at the next meeting of Uzdunrobita's creditors.
As was previously reported in January 2013, Uzdunrobita filed a petition to declare its bankruptcy in the Tashkent Economic Court. In late April, the Economic Court granted the request of creditors and decided to recognise the company's bankruptcy and open liquidation proceedings for a period of one year.
Beginning from June 2012, inspections in respect of Uzdunrobita, the largest mobile operator in Uzbekistan were initiated by regulatory agencies.
The Uzbek Attorney General's Office sanctioned the seizure of the original documents and inventory of the property and arrests and mass interrogation of company's employees were carried out. On July 17, MTS turned off its network throughout the whole of Uzbekistan on the demand of the State Inspection of Communication.
In August, the Economic Court of Tashkent supported the statement of the Uzbek Agency for Communications and Informatization on the withdrawal of all licenses from Uzdunrobita.
The Uzbek prosecutor's office accused the leading managers of Uzdunrobita of the withdrawal of funds from the company through the purchase of equipment at inflated prices, as well as in "organizing a criminal group in order to extract an uncontrolled profit."
In September, the Tashkent City Criminal Court gave its verdict against four managers of Uzdunrobita and sentenced them to fines and to different terms of correctional labour and decided to transfer the entire property of Uzdunrobita into the income of the state.