Uzbekistan, Tashkent, July 20/ Trend, D. Azizov /
The assets of all 14 regional branches of FE LLC Uzdunrobita, a subsidiary of JSC MTS in Uzbekistan, will be put up for auction on July 31, Uzbek media outlets reported.
According to the report, the starting price of the assets is 471 billion soums.
The Economic Court of the Karakalpakstan Republic and provincial Economic Courts of Uzbekistan recognized the bankruptcy of Uzdunrobita and liquidation procedures were opened at all branches. Liquidation managers were also appointed.
Uzunrobita branches officially had a status of legal entity, nevertheless were included in the structure of the head company.
As was reported, the Uzbek Communication and Information Agency (UzACI) accused the company that its branches were working without getting separate licenses and withdrew Uzunrobita's license in summer of last year.
Alongside with this, UzACI, being a shareholder of Uzdunrobita till 2002, was applying the branch structure of the company and was actually supporting the possibility of using this structure when issuing licenses to the operator.
The Court supported the decision and as a result, the largest operator in the country suspended client services. In April 2013 the Supreme Economic Court of Uzbekistan dismissed Uzunrobita's appeal to revoke license.
As was reported, beginning from June of this year, monitorings were initiated by regulatory bodies with regard to LLC Uzunrobita, the largest operator of mobile communication in Uzbekistan.
The total amount of claims against the company by Attorney General's Office, anti-monopoly bodies, Communication and Information Agency and tax bodies exceeded $1 billion which is equivalent to the amount of investments by MTS for business development in Uzbekistan.
In September-November of 2012, several employees of Uzdunrobita were sentenced to fines and correctional works on charge of extraction of uncontrollable profit. The company's assets were to be transferred to the state ownership.
In November last year, the Appeal Board of the Tashkent City Court on Criminal Cases cancelled the decision of the Lower Court on transferring the company's property to state profit, defining the volume of financial claims against Uzunrobita at $600 million with payment of this amount in installments over a period of eight months.
In late April the Tashkent Economic Court granted creditors' request, and made decision on recognition of Uzdunrobita's bankruptcy and opening liquidation proceedings.
In late May the creditors' meeting made a decision about putting the company's property up for auction with a starting price of 600 billion soums.
As was reported, the auction was scheduled for July 1, but didn't take place due to a lack of applications.
The official exchange rate for July 19 is 2101.48 soms/$1.