On 5th October 2018, the Luxembourg Commercial Court (Tribunal d’arrondissement de Luxembourg siégeant en matière commerciale) held a hearing regarding the request of ABLV Bank Luxembourg S.A. (further — the Bank) to extend the protection of the suspension-of-payments regime originally granted by the Luxembourg Commercial Court on 9 March 2018 and which ended on 9 September 2018.
The previous extension of the suspension-of-payments regime by one month requested by the temporary administrators allowed for significant progress in the sales process in which PwC acts as the advisor. The current request for the extension was based on the interest demonstrated by potential investors participating in the sales process.
Based on the new information and positive news provided, the Luxembourg Commercial Court on 10 October 2018 announced its decision to extend the protection period for additional four months to allow sufficient time for arrangements necessary to continue negotiations with several interested parties.
Initially in March 2018, the Luxembourg Commercial Court decided to reject the request of the Luxembourg financial supervisory authority (Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier) to liquidate the Luxembourg bank and decided to grant the protection of the suspension-of-payments regime of six months in order to allow the latter to find new investors. In this context, two temporary administrators were appointed to supervise the decisions of the Bank and to support it to find a new shareholder.
The protection of the clients’ interests is the primary objective of the Bank at all stages of the negotiations in this process therefore the Bank is committed to ensure sufficient time and resources are allocated to allow potential investor obtain necessary information and authorisations and to prepare for and verify compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements required for the transaction. The Bank still demonstrates strong financial standing allowing to meet all of its obligations towards clients and creditors.