OREANDA-NEWS. April 20, 2012. Since the decision taken by Vilnius Regional Court to place BAB bank SNORAS into bankruptcy on 7 December 2011, the Bankruptcy Administrator and his team of both local and international experts have worked hard to identify the optimum outcome for creditors and other stakeholders, reported the press-centre of SNORAS. 

Commenting on the status of the bankruptcy process so far, Neil Cooper, Bankruptcy Administrator said:

“No-one should underestimate the complexity of the Snoras situation. At one level it seems that this would appear to be a uniquely Lithuanian situation, it is in fact very much an international one which happens to have begun here in Lithuania. The vast geographical spread of creditors, operations and potentially recoverable assets means that this is a truly international bankruptcy case of considerable scale.”

The Bankruptcy Administrator and his team have now completed the vast majority of creditor claim processing and have processed in excess of 28,000 separate claims submitted by approximately 18,500 private individuals and businesses. Processing this huge number of claims involved a team of 180 people, most of whom were Bank employees with only four being members of the Bankruptcy Administrator’s team.

Commenting on the claims process, Cooper said the following:

“The team processing creditor claims have done  a thorough and professional job as the scale of the bankruptcy situation has become clear to all. Whilst there are of course a significant number of creditors in Lithuania, we have also identified creditors in 52 other jurisdictions who together represent approximately 41% by value of the uninsured claim on the bankruptcy estate.”

Having processed creditor claims, the coming weeks will see a number of legal and operational decisions taken which will allow for the calling of the first creditors’ meeting and the formation of the Creditors’ Committee. The Bankruptcy Administrator and his team will now focus on the recovery of assets and work with the Creditors’ Committee. They will be preparing a range of recommendations for the Committee’s approval.
 
Cooper adds: “The creditors’ meeting will be a key moment in the Bankruptcy process and my team and I will be working closely with the Committee elected at that meeting to achieve the best possible outcome for creditors. Experts within the team have been working hard since our appointment to identify assets, follow the relevant legal paths and prepare sales strategies for the component parts of the Bank and look forward to presenting these at the appropriate moment.”

In its budget decision of 22 March 2012, the Court recommended that the creditors’ meeting should be held by 30 April 2012.  In accordance with the Court’s recommendation, the Bankruptcy Administrator was proposing to hold the creditors’ meeting on or before this date.

However, a number of creditors have subsequently appealed against the Court’s decision on the claims and this will impact on the timing of the creditors’ meeting and therefore it will not be possible for the creditors’ meeting to be held by the end of April as previously hoped.  The Bankruptcy Administrator expects to provide a further update on the timing of the creditors’ meeting shortly.

Commenting on these circumstances, Cooper said:  “While I accept the right of any creditor to appeal against a Court decision, it would be unfortunate if this results in significant delays to the creditors’ meeting.”

Appendix 1 – The 53 jurisdictions from which creditor claims have been received:
Armenia
Austria
Australia
Aruba
Azerbaijan
Bulgaria
Bahamas
Belarus
Belize
Canada
Switzerland
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Germany
Denmark
Dominica
Estonia
Spain
Finland
France
United Kingdom
Gibraltar
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Ireland
Israel
Iceland
Italy
Jersey
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Kazakhstan
Lebanon
Liberia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Latvia
Moldova, Republic of Marshall Islands
Malta
Mauritius
Norway
New Zealand
Panama
Poland
Serbia
Russian Federation
Seychelles
Ukraine
United States
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Virgin Islands (British)
Virgin Islands (U.S.)

Appendix 2 – BAB bank SNORAS overseas operating jurisdictions:
Belgium
Belarus
China
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Germany
Latvia
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Ukraine
United Kingdom

Appendix 3 – Overseas jurisdictions where SPV’s and assets have been identified:
Austria
Bahamas
Belize
British Virgin Islands
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Dominica
Estonia
France
Jersey
Latvia
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
Panama
Russia
Seychelles
Switzerland
United Kingdom

Appendix 4 – BAB bank SNORAS in numbers:
BAB bank SNORAS
Over 420,000 depositors
105,000 loan customers
113,000 retail banking loans
1,500 corporate banking loans
Loans with a net book value of LTL 4.6 billion
10 branches
15 sub-branches
230 mini-banks
12 overseas operating jurisdictions.

Bankruptcy Administration Process
95% of safety deposit boxes successfully repatriated
28,000+ creditor claim forms received and processed
18,500+ creditor claims from 53 countries processed
41% of uninsured deposits held by overseas investors
1,385 employed at start of Bankruptcy Administration
381 currently employed after a review and subsequent reduction of workforce
14,000+ counterparty commercial contracts reviewed at start of Bankruptcy Administration
96% of counterparty commercial contracts since terminated
Identification of assets located in 19 overseas jurisdictions
Real estate located in 7 of these countries
109 bank cars retrieved and secured or returned to lessors
53 announcements to media, clients and creditors made via the Snoras.com website since the appointment of the Bankruptcy Administrator.