The English Court has directed today that the trial of PrivatBank's case against its former shareholders, Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov, will start on 1 March 2022. The trial is expected to take between 10 and 13 weeks. The Defendants had argued that the trial be delayed until much later, and should not start until October 2022, but the Judge considered that all parties would be ready to start by 1 March 2022.

Mr Justice Mann agreed with Privatbank’s arguments on a number of matters in relation to the timetable and directions to trial in rulings given during the two-day Case Management Conference. The pre-trial procedures are now well underway with deadlines having been set for the various steps to be taken in the lead up to the trial, which must be met by all parties.

The Worldwide Freezing Order against Mr Bogolyubov and Mr Kolomoisky remains in place and will do so until after judgment following the completion of the trial.

The Bank is confident that it will ultimately succeed in recovering the sum claimed in the proceedings which now stands at more than US$3 billion (including interest).