“The bank’s bankruptcy administrator on asked the court on 6 August to declare Snoras bankrupt and commence its liquidation procedures. Judge Andzejus Maciejevskis granted this request on Wednesday,” the court’s spokesman Gintautas Stalnionis told BNS.
An appeal against the court’s decision could be filed to the Court of Appeal within seven days, he added.
“This decision by the court actually means that there is no way back and Snoras will not be resuscitated,” Vytautas Plunksnis, chairman of the board of the Lithuanian Investors’ Association, told BNS.
In his opinion, the court’s decision should not be challenged since the decisions on Snoras’ future are being taken by the creditors’ committee, which is dominated by the state-owned Deposit Insurance Fund.
The committee of Snoras’ creditors decided on 19 July to liquidate the bank and authorized the bank’s bankruptcy administrator, Neil Cooper, to file a respective application to court.
Aurelija Mažintienė, acting head of Deposit Insurance Fund and the chairwoman of the creditors’ committee, then said that once the court took the decision on the bank’s liquidation, the realization of assets and other bankruptcy procedures would be able to start in full scale. She would not forecast how long the liquidation process might take.
Snoras’ creditors filed a total of 6.523 billion litas (EUR 1.89b) in undisputed claims. The Deposit Insurance Fund claims a total of 4.053 billion litas; however, the court has only approved the amount of 3.799 billion litas.
In mid-November, Snoras’ liabilities exceeded its net assets by 2.756 billion litas, hence the bank was declared insolvent. On 16 November, Snoras’ net assets were worth 4.416 billion litas, and its liabilities made up 7.172 billion litas.
Former Snoras’ shareholders Raimondas Baranauskas and Vladimir Antonov are suspected of large-scale appropriation of Snoras’ property worth around 1.7 billion litas. Lithuania’s prosecutors have issued a European arrest warrant for Baranauskas’ and Antonov’s arrest.
The Lithuanian government nationalized Snoras last November. A court opened bankruptcy proceedings against the bank on 7 December.
