Due to the dubious business of "RuverCap", a financial shock in Switzerland

The investment company Ruvercap headed by Marc Clapasson from Zurich, through which Batagon International bought the factory, is experiencing major financial crisis.

According to the  Vojvodina Research and Analytical Center (VOICE) , the investment company Ruvercap headed by Marc Clapasson from Zurich, through which Batagon International bought the factory, is experiencing major financial turmoil these days.

Swiss media have written in recent months about Ruvercap's suspicious investments in the Western Balkans, citing financial transactions with Batagon, owned by Dalibor Matic, who, according to media reports, was arrested in Switzerland on suspicion of involvement in money laundering. money.

VOICE reminds that Matić bought the Battery Factory in Sombor from bankruptcy at the end of 2017 for 7.35 million euros. However, the Swiss media write that "Batagon" actually bought the Battery Factory at the end of 2017 through Ruvercap.

" The transaction included a line of credit plus a factory as collateral. "But investors doubt whether Batagon used the stated amount of 63.7 million euros in its entirety for the purchase ," writes the Swiss portal finews.ch.

The factory was sold only on the sixth attempt

FAS was sold out of bankruptcy only after the sixth attempt. The first sale price was 3.6 million euros and, apart from the representatives of former workers in the Board of Creditors, was unacceptable for the other four members of the board. The same case was with Batagon's offer of 4.5 and 5.05 million euros, respectively. Washington's IFC (a branch of the World Bank) accepted offers of six and later seven million euros, but the sale failed even then because the remaining three board members were against.

Only the price of 7.35 million euros was accepted by the representative of Mediolanum Invest (they bought the receivables of Intesa Bank), so on December 1, 2019, the sale of FAS from bankruptcy was made official. Komercijalna Banka abstained, while a representative of Turkey's Hall Bank voted against the sale.

By selling FAS, all separate creditors (IFC, Hall Bank, Komercijalna Bank and Mediolanum Invest) removed the mortgage from the factory's assets. On December 20, the Commercial Court in Sombor was informed by the bankruptcy trustee Predrag Ljubović that Batagon had paid 7.35 million euros the day before. Accordingly, on January 17, 2018, the Commercial Court issued a decision to suspend the bankruptcy procedure, and for Batagon to become the owner of the entire property without any obligations to other creditors or tax authorities.

The new owner of the factory, Dalibor Matić, rarely appeared during the sale process. His authorized representative was lawyer Dejan Simić, known to the general public for  the Kofer affair. This is a case from 2006, when Simić, as the then vice-governor of the National Bank of Serbia, was accused of asking the representatives of the Danube TBI group for a bribe of two million euros in order to obtain the NBS license for financial leasing.

The media reported that the then Minister of the Interior, Ivica Dačić, was also involved in the affair .  Simic claimed that Dacic left his apartment 15 minutes before the police broke in and found a suitcase with 100,000 euros. Simic was acquitted in 2011.

Some Swiss pension funds are in trouble due to investments in Ruvercap

The Swiss portal  insideparadeplatz.ch writes that Ruvercap founder Marc Clapasson & Jon Turnes could suffer large losses due to poor business. It also included Swiss pension funds, which are now losing a lot of money.

" In this case alone, there is talk of a loss of CHF 500 million. That could be even more , "an insider source told the portal.

" Ruvercap had three funds. They financed so-called factoring and lending. This actually means that they were involved in pre-financing supplier accounts. The story revolved around three funds located in Ireland: one in Swiss francs, one in euros and one in US dollars , "writes the Swiss portal, for which Ruvercap representatives did not want to comment on the new financial crisis.

It is a Quayside Fund Management  fund from Ireland, managed by the Central Bank of Ireland. The fund was established in 2014 and operates as an alternative investment fund for placements within the European Economic Area (EEA).

VOICE asked a number of questions to the management of that Irish fund regarding the business with the Swiss Ruvercap, however - the answers were missing .  As in the case of the Swiss portals that were interested in the losses caused by Ruvercap's business, VOICE remained deprived of that, but also questions regarding the possible termination of cooperation with the Swiss company and its investments in the Western Balkans.

Apart from the damage that this Irish fund obviously suffered, the portal luzernerzeitung.ch also broadcasts the story of the losses in the pension fund of the city of Zug (PK), where they could not guess what financial result their investment in Ruvercap's financial instruments would have. Given the new debts of at least 500 million euros, the pension fund of the city of Zug is experiencing a financial shock.

PK shifted its investment strategy to sustainable investments, to which Ruvercap funds also belonged. According to the report of the president of the PC, Karl Kobelt, they expected a good return of money, but it happened that in 2019 they experienced a loss of 2.5 million Swiss francs. In 2019, PK had 1,139 active insured persons and 458 pensioners. The balance sheet total was CHF 534 million.