Vasil Kisil & Partners successfully represents the interests of Hongyang Metal Industry in land disputes in the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine

Vasil Kisil & Partners, Kyiv, Ukraine, 
Wed, Sep 23, 2015

Vasil Kisil & Partnerssuccessfully represented the interests of Hongyang Metal Industry, aninternational investor into the manganese ore industry in Ukraine, in economiccourts in land disputes with the prosecutor. Disputes concerned recognition asunlawful and cancellation of the orders of the Main Department of the StateAgency of Land Resources of Ukraine in Zaporizhia region on lease-out of thestate-owned agricultural land plots (total area 137 ha) and change of theirintended use towards manganese ore extraction and processing, as well asinvalidation of land lease agreements.

The prosecutor stated that the Department acted inexcess of its statutory authority when it issued the orders to lease out theland plots and change their intended use, and therefore, the court shouldrecognize these orders as invalid and cancel them and should also invalidatethe related land lease agreements.

The local economic court has dismissed theprosecutor’s claims in their entirety. The court has concluded that there wereno grounds for recognizing as unlawful and cancelling the orders and invalidatingthe lease agreements. According to the legislative amendments of 2013, theState Agency of Land Resources of Ukraine and its territorial bodies areauthorized to dispose of state-owned agricultural lands for all needs.

The appellate economic courtupheld the decisions of the court of first instance.

TheSupreme Economic Courtof Ukraine agreed with the legal position of Hongyang Metal Industry regarding applicationof substantive norms of law and absenceof grounds for recognizing as unlawful and cancelling of the orders andinvalidating the lease agreements.

Counsellor Oleg Kachmarand associate Yuriy Kolosunder the supervision of managing partner Andriy Stelmashchukhave represented the interests of Hongyang Metal Industry in courts of all instances.

Hongyang Metal Industry is a subsidiary of the Chinese ore mining company HubeiChangyang Hongxin Industrial Group, which makes large investments into themanganese ore industry in Ukraine. Hubei Changyang Hongxin Industrial Group isChina’s second largest mining company specializing in the production ofmanganese ore, metal structures, anode plates, and hydropower engineering.

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Formore details please contact OlgaShevchenko,PR Manager
Tel.: +38044 581 7777

E-mail:shevchenko@vkp.kiev.ua

About the Firm

Establishedin 1992, Vasil Kisil & Partners is a Ukrainian law firm that delivers integrated legal advicein banking & finance, mergers & acquisitions, capital markets,antitrust, competition and trade, dispute resolution, tax law, energy and naturalresources law, intellectual property law, labor and employment law, real estate and construction law,as well as PPP, concessions and infrastructure law. Vasil Kisil & Partners is a member of suchinternational professional associations as TerraLex, IBA, and Ius Laboris.

Thefirm`s clients include such world-known companies as Air Liquide, Alfa Bank (Ukraine), Alpcot Agro, Ardagh, Arricano, Astellas Pharma, Bayer Consumer, BNP Paribas, British American Tobacco, Central European Media Enterprises, Coca Cola, Credit Agricole Group, Hubei Changyang Hongxin Industrial Group, Danone, Dell Inc., DuPont, EBRD, Ericsson, Energy Standard Group, Eurosport, Ferrexpo AG, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Inditex Group, LG Electronics, MTS, Moody’s, NCH Capital, Opel, Philips, Piraeus Bank, Red Bull, Samsung, Sberbank of Russia, Seven Hills, Shell, Shelton Petroleum, Sony Corp, St. Sophia Homes, Swedbank AB, Tchibo, Thomson Reuters, Ukrsibbank, UniCredit Group, Uniqa, Utair, Vanco International / Vanco Energy, Volkswagen, YouTube, etc.