Post by Mag. Sandra Bauer, Head of Corporate Communications - IMMOFINANZ AG on January 26th, 2012.In a long-awaited ruling (9 Ob 17/11g) on case 18 Cg 29/09t before the Vienna Commercial Court concerning the investment product “Dragon FX Garant“, the Austrian Supreme Court has clarified key legal issues in favour of the former Constantia Privatbank AG – now Aviso Zeta AG.
The previous standpoint of investors in these legal proceedings was that they had purchased a share in an investment fund but received a bond in exchange, meaning the wrong product was delivered (“aliud“). In its ruling on this case, the Supreme Court clearly rejected this argumentation.
“This Supreme Court ruling is a great success for us and clearly confirms the positive assessment of Aviso Zeta AG. The settlement of all Dragon FX cases was proposed by a number of investor representatives shortly after the ruling was announced. We are therefore very optimistic that the Dragon FX Garant issue will soon be finally settled in favour of Aviso Zeta“, commented Stefan Frömmel, member of the Executive Board of Aviso Zeta AG, on this satisfactory ruling for the company.
The Supreme Court ruling stated that the information brochure published by Aviso Zeta AG formed the basis for the purchase. In the opinion of the Supreme Court, there was “no room“ for argumentation of the kind stated by the investors. The brochure indicated that this product is a certificate with a capital guarantee. There was, therefore, agreement on the object of purchase, which cannot be changed by any possible false designations. The decisive point is that the purchase form for the Dragon FX Garant was completed. The Supreme Court substantiated and confirmed its ruling on this issue (9 Ob 17/11g), in which the aliud-objection had been rejected.
In addition, the Supreme Court reiterated that Aviso Zeta AG was not required to refer to any general credit risk associated with Lehman Brothers in the cited information brochure.
A total of 500 cases against Aviso Zeta AG with a total value in dispute of EUR 7 million are currently pending at the Vienna Commercial Court and awaiting the outcome of this test case. Based on this Supreme Court ruling, it is highly probable that the other pending Dragon FX Garant proceedings will also be decided in favour of Aviso Zeta AG, since most of the plaintiffs have already withdrawn their lawsuits and reimbursed Aviso Zeta AG for the costs incurred.
“We are interested in an out-of-court end to these proceedings, in order to avoid further unnecessary work for the courts and to save costs for all parties involved. We are convinced the involved attorneys will share this opinion“, added Frömmel.
On Aviso Zeta AG
Aviso Zeta AG, formerly Constantia Privatbank AG, is the previous external management company of Immofinanz AG and, since 2010, a wholly owned subsidiary of IMMOFINANZ Group.
On IMMOFINANZ Group
IMMOFINANZ Group is one of the five largest listed property companies in Europe and is included in the leading ATX index of the Vienna Stock Exchange. Since its founding in 1990, the company has compiled a high-quality property portfolio that now comprises more than 1,600 standing investment properties with a carrying amount of approx. EUR 8.7 billion. The core business of the IMMOFINANZ Group covers the acquisition and the active management of investment properties, the realisation of development projects and the sale of objects. IMMOFINANZ Group concentrates its activities in the retail, office, logistics and residential segments of eight regional core markets: Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland and Russia. Further information under: www.immofinanz.com.
