Back in 2013 the handler lost its majority shareholding in the joint venture, Swissport Ukraine, following what has been termed a raider attack in which Ukraine International Airlines was rumoured to be involved. Following a legal process, in October that year the Highest Economic Court in the Ukraine ruled in favour of Swissport, and cancelled all prior decisions and referred the case back to the first instance court.
In May 2014, Swissport's case received a favourable ruling from the Economic Court of Kyiv. However, following Ukraine International Airlines' subsequent appeal, the Court of Appeal has now ruled against Swissport, despite the fact that Swissport meanwhile has obtained in an ancillary proceeding a final and binding court ruling in its favour, pursuant to which Swissport would need to be re-entered as shareholder into the Ukrainian state register and the company would have to be renamed to Swissport Ukraine once more.
The recent ruling seems to be rather contradictory in the light of what has gone before but Swissport is still confident of a positive outcome and is in the process of appealing.
