The share in Tulpar Air (TUL, Kazan International) of Azat Hakim, the founder and former shareholder of the Russian business charter specialist, is worth RUB871 million rubles (USD9 million) and not RUB1.3 billion (USD13.5 million) as Hakim claimed, a court expert determined during a hearing at the Arbitration Court of Tatarstan.
There was no ruling during the court session and the court postponed the hearing until October 31, Kommersant reported.
The valuation comes after Hakim sued his former company following the sale of his 49% stake. He was seeking an additional RUB890 million (USD9.7 million), saying he was only paid for only a part of the stake he sold a year ago. According to local media reports, he sold his shares for RUB420 million (USD4.3 million) initially and then demanded the RUB890 million retroactively, claims Hakim deems incorrect, according to a statement he gave the Russian-language portal Business-Online following the latest hearing in the case against his former business partners.
Hakim’s stance
“They announced they would transform Tulpar Air from a limited liability company (LLC) into a joint-stock company (JSC),” Hakim stated, adding that his partners at TAIF (now formally known as Sibur-RT) claimed the move had to be made due to western sanctions. Prior to that move, Hakim and TAIF had had a disagreement over TAIF’s decision to conduct an audit at short notice.
“Those who are not involved in business may not quite understand, but in an LLC, participants do not have the right to sell their shares to anyone without the consent of the second participant - this is a restriction. But there is also a positive side: if one of the participants becomes uncomfortable working and does not agree with something, then by law he has the right to write a statement about leaving the company, and the company - I emphasize: not the second participant, but the company - is obliged to pay him the actual value of his share in money or property,” Hakim said. He pointed out that such a move would be a voluntary withdrawal from the company. “In a joint-stock company, such a right is absent, a shareholder can sell his shares to anyone, but you cannot simply leave the company by writing a statement. If Tulpar Air were to become a JSC, my rights to exit would essentially be nullified. This is why I took advantage of my legal right to leave the company."
However, Hakim points out that Tulpar Air hasn’t been turned into a JSC since his departure, leading him to believe the intention all along was to force him to exit his company.
“The company was supposed to pay me my share within three months after leaving, but it was partially paid only after five months, which is already a violation,” Hakim said, adding that under Russian law, for LLCs, the actual value of the share is paid based on the net assets of the company.
“I was paid RUB420 million based on accounting data, while the market value of assets was not assessed at all,” he noted.
Counterclaims
During the latest hearing in the case, Hakim’s legal team questioned the validity of the asset valuation, saying that the expert had used unreliable internet resources to determine the value of Tulpar Air’s Challenger 300, RA-67217 (msn 20173), including humorous social media posts on Vkontakte.
On the other hand, Tulpar Air’s representatives stated that the valuation needed to be cut because Hakim had used the jets for his personal use, too.
Earlier, Tulpar's current sole owner TAIF, filed a counterclaim against Hakim, saying that he left Tulpar Air at risk of bankruptcy when he decided to exit. Sibur-RT is asking Hakim for RUB420 million, plus RUB51 million (circa USD532,000) in interest.
Tulpar Air did not respond to a request for comment sent by ch-aviation.
Tulpar Air operates a Bombardier Aerospace-only fleet of one Challenger 300, one Challenger 350, two Challenger 850s, one Global 6000, and two Global 5000s, ch-aviation fleets data shows.
