OREANDA-NEWS  In a bankruptcy petition filed in November last year by the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange, which the trading platform later called fake, the authors stated that the exchange owed 435 million rubles to the largest banks. RBC writes about the details with reference to court documents.

It was the "overdue debt" to Sberbank in the amount of 245 million rubles and VTB in the amount of 190 million rubles in mid-November 2023 that became the basis for applying for recognition of the company as insolvent. The authors of the statement also claimed that the site is unable to fulfill its obligations due to sanctions.

Representatives of the trading platform told the publication that "information about the debts of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange to credit institutions does not correspond to reality." It is noted that the seal of the organization and the signature of the head of the company in the statement "were compromised."

There is also no information in open sources about the credit lines of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange in these banks. An interlocutor of RBC in the company said that the site "has never been credited to credit institutions, has not opened credit lines." The representative of the organization stressed that, taking into account the capital structure and liabilities of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange, there was no need for debt financing.

The appeal of the trading platform to the Moscow Arbitration Court with a bankruptcy petition became known on November 27. However, representatives of the site denied this information, stating a stable financial condition. Against the background of the news, the company's shares fell by more than 30 percent.

Andrey Kochetkov, a leading analyst at the global research department of Otkritie Investments, suggested later that one of the owners of foreign securities dissatisfied with the inclusion of the platform in the US sanctions list could be behind the rumors about the bankruptcy of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange. The expert noted that the platform does have some difficulties with operations, but it does not have financial problems, and the company's shares will level out soon.

The St. Petersburg Stock Exchange stated that it plans to contact law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident of a forged bankruptcy application. The organization also asked to carefully perceive any information that may appear in relation to the exchange. However, as of January 12, 2024, the site has not yet applied to the competent authorities with a corresponding application.