The liquidators of two Irish aircraft and ship leasing companies owned by the Russian government aim to have sold 17 planes – or half the firms’ fleet outside of Russia – by early next year, according to sources.
Joint liquidators Damien Murran and Julian Moroney of Teneo Restructuring Ireland currently have 11 planes owned by the firms, GTLK Europe and GTLK Europe Capital, on the market. The sales process around six of these are said to be at an advanced stage.
The liquidators have completed the sale of ships owned by the two Irish GTLK firms with a third one set to be put on the market in the coming weeks, the sources said.
All told they are expected to have closed deals on vessels making up half the value of the 19-strong fleet owned by the firms when they were put into liquidation last year.
The High Court ordered in May 2023 that the two Russian state-owned aircraft and shipping leasing firms be put into liquidation on foot of an application by four creditors who claimed they were owed more than $175 million (€161.6m) by them.
The firms were hard hit by sanctions imposed on Russian entities following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The court was told at the time that the two companies owed bondholders $3.75 billion cumulatively. Total assets were valued at $4.5 billion before the liquidation. About half of the debt is held by Russian investors. The liquidators are prohibited from making any payments from proceeds of asset sales to sanctioned Russian parties.
“The process of realising assets on behalf of creditors is now well under way and progress to date has been positive. Ongoing remarketing efforts for a considerable number of the aviation assets, and for maritime vessels, have attracted strong interest,” the joint liquidators said in a statement to The Irish Times in response to questions. “As always we are engaging with regulators on an ongoing basis with a view to achieving the most advantageous outcome for creditors in line with the sanctions regime.”
Some 33 of the 70 aircraft on the companies’ balance sheets at the time of the liquidation order are based outside of Russia.
To recover the value of the remaining 37 aircraft in Russia – and under the control of the firms’ Moscow-based parent Joint Stock Company State Transport Leasing Company – the liquidators have also joined a case in London against insurers that had contracts covering $2.4 billion in assets held by the GTLK firms.
At the end of June the Court of Appeal in Dublin upheld an earlier High Court ruling that effectively nullified several purported claims that the Joint Stock Company State Transport Leasing Company had on the 37 planes. The declarations are being used as part of the insurance claims made by the liquidators.
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