OFI-INT unlikely to conduct business with the airline in the future (200 words)

Published: 9/18/2000

The acrimonious dispute over payments for engine deliveries between trading company OFI-INT and Krasair may be at an end. According to Sergey Seminikin from OFI-INT, his company has come to agreement with Krasair regarding repayment and the Siberian carrier will clear its debts in the near future. Despite the resolution of the debt, an angry Mr Seminikin still insists that the release of the aircraft, seized for the non-payment of the debts by the courts in Samara, was illegal and that the aircraft should not have been returned to Krasair, prior to resolution of the debt dispute. The resolution of the debts has also not improved Seminikin's attitude towards Krasair, which, during recent weeks he has threatened with bankruptcy, saying that he will not deal with the airline again. Seminikin should be given credit for using the media very effectively in this case, having launched a number of blistering attacks on the airline over its treatment of his company. This may have assisted the speed of settlement. More generally, Seminikin commented that OFT-INT's business in trading aircraft and engines in Russia had to cope with a market offering aging products at very high prices that in no way reflected the value of the aircraft.

Article ID: 2077