Squire Patton Boggs – Salkom International Association represented Imperovo Foods LLC

A team from Squire Patton Boggs - Salkom International Association has successfully represented Imperovo Foods LLC on a case before the Ukrainian Supreme Court which concludes a 10-year dispute with the State South Western Railway in Ukraine over the ownership of an eight storey office building based in Kiev.

Imperovo Foods is a subsidiary of Avandgarco IPL, which publicly trades on the London Stock Exchange and is owned by Ukrlandfarming Group. 

The building at the centre of the ownership dispute was originally contributed by the State to the charter capital of an open joint stock company in 2002, and subsequently purchased and redeveloped by Imperovo Foods to be used as executive offices for the Ukrlandfarming Group.  The State then challenged the ownership of the building, claiming that its contribution was an abuse of power and in breach of privatization law, and that ownership should revert back to the State.  Squire Patton Boggs – Salkom argued that Imperovo Foods, as a third party bona fide purchaser, acquired the office building and that the transaction carried out by the State authorities was in accordance with the law.    

Court cases and appeals concerning the ownership of the building had been on-going for almost ten years, with the plaintiffs including the Deputy Prosecutor General, Cabinet of Ministers, State South-Western Railway.  The defendants included the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, State Property Fund of Ukraine, OJSC Leasing Company – Ukrtransleasing, State Administrative Railway Transport – Ukrzaliznytsa. 

The Squire Patton Boggs – Salkom team included Yuri Dzera, Pavlo Lukomskyi, Victoria Klymiuk and Peter Teluk.