Auction in Gibraltar: 63 bidders want to buy fixed oligarch yacht »Axioma«

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The "Axioma" in Gibraltar at the end of March: The new owner should be known in a maximum of two weeks

Photo: JON NAZCA / REUTERS

The auction of a Russian oligarch's luxury yacht in Gibraltar has attracted a lot of interest.

As the competent court of the British territory announced on Tuesday, 63 bids were submitted for the "Axioma".

The bidding phase is now complete, now the buyer will be decided.

The sale could be completed in "between 10 and 14 days," the court said.

The 72 meter long ship of the oligarch Dimitri Pumpianski has six decks, two large pools and a cinema.

It was seized in March as part of Britain's sanctions against Russia over its war of aggression against Ukraine.

In June, a court in Gibraltar then ordered the »Axioma« to be auctioned off at the »highest possible price«.

Excluded from the auction are the wine bottles and other alcohol on board the yacht - with an estimated value of 150,000 euros.

The yacht, in turn, has an estimated market value of around 75 million US dollars.

With the seizure of the yacht, the Gibraltar judiciary followed a complaint from the US bank JPMorgan.

In December 2021, the bank granted a loan of 20.5 million euros to a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Among the owners of this company was a Cypriot company, which in turn was owned by Pumpianski.

JPMorgan considered Pumpianski's listing on the UK sanctions list against Russia a breach of the loan agreement.

As a result, the bank in Gibraltar applied to seize and sell the Maltese-flagged yacht.

JPMorgan is demanding that the proceeds from the sale be used to repay the loan.

Pumpianski is the boss of the largest Russian pipeline manufacturer TMK.

Therefore, there are also EU sanctions against him in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Because of the war, several European countries have confiscated yachts owned by Russian oligarchs, including Spain, Italy and France.

aar/AFP