The Litigation and Arbitration Practice team at EPAM Law has successfully defended the interests of Stockmann JSC in a dispute with the bankruptcy administrator of IPK Atlas LLC (formerly Podium Market LLC) regarding the invalidation of transactions involving Stockmann’s acquisition of certain assets from Podium Market.

The bankruptcy administrator argued in court that Stockmann had acquired not just specific assets but an entire business, which was valued at RUB 1.7bn, as opposed to the RUB 105m stipulated in the transaction. This position was supported by a court-commissioned expert examination conducted prior to EPAM’s involvement in the case.

In the appellate court, EPAM’s lawyers demonstrated that the court experts had grossly overestimated the value of the disputed assets, basing their calculations on an overly optimistic business plan prepared by the former management. This plan failed to account for the company’s pre-bankruptcy financial condition at the time. As a result, a second expert examination was ordered. Despite repeated refusals from court-appointed experts to conduct the review on dubious grounds, EPAM’s team succeeded in securing a professional re-evaluation, which assessed the assets, as a unified business, to be worth approximately RUB 48m. Consequently, the appellate court dismissed the bankruptcy administrator’s claim.

Stockmann’s interests in court, including proceedings at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, were represented by EPAM’s Litigation and Arbitration team. The team was led by Denis Arkhipov, Managing Partner of the Moscow office and Co-Head of the Practice, along with Counsel Denis Golubev.