15.07.2015
[Cologne, ] GÖRG filed an action today with the Frankfurt/Main Regional Court on behalf of a creditor pool consisting of 11 well-known investors from Germany and Austria. The action is brought against HETA ASSET RESOLUTION AG (HETA), Klagenfurt (Austria), and seeks to compel the repayment of claims totalling almost EUR 1 billion. The spokesperson for the pool is Dexia Kommunalbank Deutschland AG, which itself holds claims amounting to EUR 395 million, making it the largest single creditor in the pool.
HETA is the resolution corporation of former Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG, which was taken over by the Republic of Austria in 2009 in order to avoid insolvency due to massive financial problems.
The creditors (banks, in particular mortgagelending institutions, insurers, asset managers and public corporations), which are organised in the pool under a pool agreement, hold more than EUR 1 billion in bonds and Schuldschein loans issued by the legal predecessor to HETA from 2002 to 2007. Alongside HETA, the Province of Carinthia and Kärnter Landesholding share responsibility for the claims of the creditors on the basis of a statutory liability guarantee.
GÖRG already oversaw the consolidation of the creditors into a pool and, together with the Austrian law firm DOR-DA BRUGGER JORDIS (DBJ) Rechtsanwälte GmbH (Vienna), advised the creditors on the collective protection of their rights in Austrian objection proceedings filed against the Austrian Financial Market Authority and contesting the moratorium issued by that Authority on 1 March 2015. DBJ is presently also acting for junior creditors before the Austrian Constitutional Court. That action involves the constitutional law judicial review of the effectiveness of Haa-SanG (the Austrian federal statute on restructuring measures for HYPO ALPE-ADRIA-Bank INTERNATIONAL AG), which sought to extinguish the claims of junior creditors against HETA.
The action brought today by GÖRG against HETA is the most recent legal action action in a series of actions brought by (primarily German) creditors against the Austrian resolution corporation. The Frankfurt/Main Regional Court has jurisdiction to hear the action on the basis of effective choice of law clauses in the bond terms and the Schuldschein loans, since the finance instruments issued by HETA and its legal predecessor are governed by German law.
Berlin-based Dexia Kommunalbank Deutschland AG specialises in financing public entities, in particular regional municipalities and municipally-owned entities, and is a subsidiary of Dexia S. A. (Brussels), the major shareholders of which are the countries of Belgium and France.
Advisors
GÖRG Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten mbB
Dr. Roland Hoffmann-Theinert, Partner, Banking (Lead), Berlin/Frankfurt
Dr. Christian Bärenz, Partner, Restructuring, Cologne
Dr. Mark O. Kersting, Partner, Banking, Frankfurt/Main
Dr. Jochen Lehmann, Partner, Litigation, Cologne
Dr. Jens Dietrich Mitzlaff, Partner, Banking, Frankfurt/Main
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Ramsauer, Of Counsel, EU Law, especially State Aid/Subsidy Law, Hamburg
Dr. Yorick Ruland, Partner, Banking, Cologne
Dr. Kersten Wagner-Cardenal, EU Law, especially State Aid/Subsidy Law, Hamburg
Dr. Christian Wenner, Partner, International Conflicts of Laws, Cologne
Dr. Thomas Rühle, Associated Partner, Litigation/Restructuring, Cologne
Dr. Christoph Kunze, LL.M., Associate, Banking/Corporate Law, Berlin
Dr. Anne Laspeyres, Associate, Restructuring, Cologne
Sören Rettig, LL.M., Associate, Litigation, Cologne
Cooperation partner in Austria DORDA BRUGGER JORDIS Rechtsanwälte GmbH, Wien
Dr Andreas Zahradnik, Partner, Banking
Dr Bernhard Müller, Partner, Business Administrative Law
Mag. Christoph Hilkesberger, Associate, Banking
Mag. Christian Schöller, Associate, Banking
Dr. Stephan Steinhofer, Associate, Litigation
Mag. Lorenz Wicho, Associate, Business Administrative Law
www.dbj.at
