Can 3.3 hectares of land cost 0 rubles? Sberbank says it can and is requiring a delinquent borrower to hand over its collateral for free.
In February 2009, a Tver region branch of Sberbank approved a 15.7 million ruble ($542,000) credit line to Karat, a company that needed the funds for its working capital. Karat took out almost the maximum amount (15 million rubles) and was supposed to have repaid the debt by December 2009. The interest rate on the loan was 20 percent to 22 percent annually, depending on Karat's revenues.
The loan's collateral included real estate, which was owned by parties connected to Karat, equipment, equity stakes in the company, housing, apartments and 33,000 square meters of land near the village of Bolshaya Berezha, in the Tver region.
In April 2009, Karat stopped repaying its debt. By January 2010, Sberbank valued its loss at 17.8 million rubles, according to a holding by the Bezhitsky court, through which the bank was trying to recover the collateral from the owners of Karat.
The value of the collateral was 17 million rubles, according to the mortgage agreement, but the starting price of the 3.3 hectare land plot was 0 rubles. (Vedomosti obtained a copy of the mortgage agreement and court decision.)
The case has been considered and is now in the process of being appealed, a court employee said.
Dmitry Shevchenko, a lawyer for Karat, said the court confirmed that the property would be thrown in for free, therefore doing nothing to cover the debt.
"The plot on Bolshaya Berezha was included as additional backing for the loan. At the last moment, when everything was agreed upon, Sberbank added a condition: Either we [Karat] pledge the property or we don't get the loan," a Karat representative said through a lawyer.
An independent estimate of the property, which includes the building housing the tourist camp Sosnovy Bor, was not carried out, as it was not initially offered as a deposit.
"Sberbank said it would accept the deposit without an appraisal, going only on its book value. … And we agreed," the representative said.
"The Sosnovy Bor building had carrying value. We drew up a rental agreement later, and it had no value in the accounting books, but you can't put up a building as collateral without the land, and the collateral was priced at 0 rubles. The bank drew up all the documents, and we signed them," the representative said.
"At the beginning of 2009, banks didn't know what would happen with borrowers, and Sberbank probably required the maximum collateral at the last minute," said an executive at a large private bank.
"The bank tried to get the maximum collateral, all the more so as the borrower couldn't pay off its previous liabilities," said Artur Alexandrovich, chief executive of collection agency Pristav. "But from a legal point of view this is bad form — collateral can't cost 0 rubles under any conditions. Maybe there wasn't enough time to do an appraisal, since the company needed the funds urgently," he said.
Sberbank didn't respond to a request for information.
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