AKC GROUP / KUNSTOPLAST
Bankruptcy proceedings opened / Ashok Chauhan's personal assets may be involved
A local court in Bad Homburg, Germany, opened bankruptcy proceedings on June 3 against two affiliates of the worldwide AKC Group (European HQ: An den Drei Hasen 37, D-61440 Oberursel), owned by Indian businessman and chemist Ashok Chauhan. Oberursel-based Kunstoplast-Chemie GmbH and Kunstochem GmbH are the two largest units of the 45-company international group, whose main activities are in plastics distribution. AKC, which employs 2,000 people, reported consolidated German sales of DM 800m for 1992, the last year for which figures are available. Worldwide sales totalled DM 2bn.
According to the court, Chauhan's creditor banks have now provided the DM 200,000 required to open proceedings, which had been delayed because of a lack of cash. Indications are that the Indian millionaire's personal assets also will be involved. But officials say a decision as to whether or not to proceed against Ashok Chauhan personally has been delayed, as he is presently in India.
As reported earlier, the Chauhan family – apparently as a hedge against bankruptcy – has founded a new German company, Kunstoplast Petrochemicals GmbH (Hamburger Allee 2-10, D-60486 Frankfurt), with equity capital of DM 100,000. Managing director is Aron Chauhan, brother of Ashok Chauhan. Whether or not this firm actually is operational and to what extent is hard to determine at this point, informed sources say. Aron Chauhan and his family left Germany in May, so that no member of the family is available to testify in the bankruptcy proceedings, a situation that staff members in Oberursel view with – understandable – anger and outrage.
Part of the spectacular bankruptcy scenario apparently are the extensive real estate and company acquisition dealings of Ashok Chauhan in the former German Democratic Republic. The banks blocked the Indian millionaire's accounts in late March as they got wind of the speculation. The Treuhandanstalt (Leipziger Str. 5-7, D-10117 Berlin), privatisation agency for formerly state-owned eastern German businesses, already had severed ties.
According to the court, Chauhan's creditor banks have now provided the DM 200,000 required to open proceedings, which had been delayed because of a lack of cash. Indications are that the Indian millionaire's personal assets also will be involved. But officials say a decision as to whether or not to proceed against Ashok Chauhan personally has been delayed, as he is presently in India.
As reported earlier, the Chauhan family – apparently as a hedge against bankruptcy – has founded a new German company, Kunstoplast Petrochemicals GmbH (Hamburger Allee 2-10, D-60486 Frankfurt), with equity capital of DM 100,000. Managing director is Aron Chauhan, brother of Ashok Chauhan. Whether or not this firm actually is operational and to what extent is hard to determine at this point, informed sources say. Aron Chauhan and his family left Germany in May, so that no member of the family is available to testify in the bankruptcy proceedings, a situation that staff members in Oberursel view with – understandable – anger and outrage.
Part of the spectacular bankruptcy scenario apparently are the extensive real estate and company acquisition dealings of Ashok Chauhan in the former German Democratic Republic. The banks blocked the Indian millionaire's accounts in late March as they got wind of the speculation. The Treuhandanstalt (Leipziger Str. 5-7, D-10117 Berlin), privatisation agency for formerly state-owned eastern German businesses, already had severed ties.
15.06.1994 Plasteurope.com [21364]
Published on 15.06.1994