CHINESE "KAISHEN" INITIATED THE BANKRUPTCY OF "ALTAI STARS"

Chinese entrepreneurs have appealed to the Altai regional arbitration with a claim for bankruptcy of the Barnaul firm "Star of Altai". The company has been operating since 2019 and specializes in the wholesale trade of cereals, livestock feed, tobacco and seeds. The beneficiary and head of the organization is Sofia Vasilyeva.

On August 24, the Kaishen Trade group (China, Manchuria) filed an application to the court. The amount of the claimed claims is 35.85 million rubles, including 1.5% for using other people's money (case no. A03-13351/2023).

The decision of the Arbitration Court of the Altai Territory in another case (No. A03-17680/2022) became the basis for accepting the claim for production. The Chinese business managed to recover from the defendant 34.2 million rubles of the principal debt and more than 1.44 million as interest. The decision of the first instance in July 2023 withstood the appeal (7th AAC).

It turned out that the Russian and Chinese organizations signed an agreement in June 2022. The Altai company has pledged to supply 4.5 thousand tons of flax and barley to the Chinese partner. The contract amount was 171 million rubles. At the same time, the volume of each batch of grain and the term of its shipment were not specified in the contract. Representatives of the Chinese side assumed that the Barnaul company would divide the goods into equal parts and send 750 tons of cargo every month.

In July 2022, the Kaishen Trade Group transferred 34.2 million to the accounts of the Altai Star, considering them as an advance payment for 900 tons of flax. However, 12 days later, a notification was received from the seller that they had prepared only 100 tons. The Chinese partners considered this a violation of the terms of the contract and by September tried to terminate it, demanding a refund.

The Chinese failed to achieve payment in a pre-trial order. The firm went to court, demanding 35.85 million rubles. The grain seller in court argued his objections with the lack of information about container numbers and the consignee. However, the court was not convinced, since familiarity with the correspondence between the firms confirmed the seriousness of the intentions of the Chinese side to complete the transaction.

Until March 2023, the Chinese partners still demonstrated attempts to get the Altai partners to fulfill the agreement. In March, the Altai Star offered to conclude a settlement agreement, stating its desire to send 450 tons of grain for 17.1 million. The remaining part of the amount was to remain with the Altai company as compensation for expenses.

The actual doubling of the product price did not convince the Chinese side. But the decrease in the volume of cargo led the representatives of the Kaishen Trade Group to the idea that the company from Barnaul simply does not have flax in the right volume. The warehouse used by the company could not accommodate more than 600 tons.

The arbitration offered the partners to inspect the warehouse, but in the end it was never done. It was not possible to achieve a peaceful settlement of the lawsuit. The Altai Star insisted that the market price of flax had fallen, demanding compensation for the losses incurred. As a result, the court sided with Kaishen in April, collecting the amount claimed by the plaintiff from the defendant.