Sofia City Court Proceeds with Corpbank Bankruptcy Case

Sofia, April 15 (BTA) - The Sofia City Court (SCC) Wednesday
proceeded with the Corpbank bankruptcy case.

The case will be examined behind closed doors on a motion by
part of the parties. The proceedings were so far blocked by an
appeal by Corpbank shareholders before the Supreme
Administrative Court, which ruled on April 2 that the appellants
lacked legal standing to challenge the decision of the
Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) delicensing Corpbank.

Corpbank, represented by its temporary trustees in bankruptcy,
the BNB, the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund (BDIF) and the
Sofia City Prosecution Office were summoned to Wednesday's
hearing, as well as the two principal shareholders in the bank:
Bromak EOOD and Bulgarian Acquisition Company, through their
representing counsel. All parties summoned appeared in court.

Emerging from the courtroom, BNB General Counsel Nina Stoyanova
said that the SCC will pronounce on Corpbank's bankruptcy within
seven days and she expects the bank to be adjudicated bankrupt.
She specified that immediately after the court renders its
judgment, the BDIF will appoint a trustee in bankruptcy. Asked
whether the case could have been tried in open court, Stoyanova
said that the Bank Bankruptcy Act expressly and mandatorily
requires the case to be tried behind closed doors. Judge Ivo
Dachev, who is trying the case, explained to journalists that,
in his opinion, if the parties agree, an open court hearing
would not have been procedurally barred.

Lawyer Menko Menkov, who represents the principal shareholder in
Corpbank, told journalists that the European courts will be
approached about the issues on whether the bank was capable of
effecting payments, on which date it should have been placed
under special supervision, and on which date it became or did
not become insolvent. He added that at this point, the Bulgarian
courts refuse to pronounce on these issues.

On June 20, 2014, Corpbank, Bulgaria's fourth biggest lender,
suspended all operations after a panic run by depositors left it
illiquid. The BNB placed Corpbank under special supervision for
a maximum of six months to allow a thorough audit and possible
restructuring. The BNB Governing Council withdrew Corpbank's
banking licence on November 5, 2014, and the bank's bankruptcy
was petitioned on November 7. The majority shareholders in the
bank are Bromak EOOD, a Sofia-based non-bank financial
institution owned by Tzvetan Vassilev (50.66 per cent), and
Luxembourg-registered Bulgarian Acquisition Co., controlled by
the State General Reserve Fund of Oman (30.4 per cent).