18 Apr 2019 14:43
LEI: 213800AS2I1XUAGQ6F27
18 April 2019
JKX Oil & Gas plc ("JKX")
Update on 2015 Poltava rental fee claims
As explained in the JKX 2018 Annual Report, the Ukrainian tax authorities have claimed additional rental fees for 2015 from Poltava Petroleum Company ("PPC"), JKX's subsidiary in Ukraine, and JKX has made a provision of US$30.1m as at 31 December 2018. The claims are being contested in eight separate cases with four of the cases currently suspended in the Supreme Court.
The Poltava Circuit Administrative Court ("the Court") heard one of the other four cases, case 816/688/16, on 17 April 2019. Having considered the legal and tax expert evidence put forward by PPC, along with objections submitted by the Poltava Tax Authorities, the Court found in favour of PPC, ruling that the Tax Notification Decisions previously issued against PPC were illegal and will be cancelled. This decision might be subject to appeal in the higher courts in Ukraine. This case relates to additional tax liability and associated penalties of approximately UAH58m (US$2.2m).
As previously reported, in December 2018 the Court heard case 816/845/16 relating to additional tax liability and associated penalties of approximately UAH9m (US$0.3m) and similarly found in favour of PPC. Following appeal of this judgement by the Poltava Tax Authorities this case was scheduled to be heard by the Kharkiv Appellate Administrative Court today but it has now been adjourned until 2 May 2019.
ENDS
JKX Oil & Gas plc +44 (0) 20 7323 4464
Ben Fraser, CFO
EM Communications +44 (0) 20 7002 7860
Stuart Leasor, Jeroen van de Crommenacker