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US court reschedules final sale hearing of Citgo parent

According to a filing, a U.S. Federal Court approved on Thursday the rescheduling a long-anticipated sale hearing that was originally scheduled for next week. The hearing would have determined the winner of the auction of shares of the parent company of Venezuelan-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum.

After a court officer who was overseeing the auction recommended that a unit from miner Gold Reserve submit a different bid, two uninvited bids submitted recently by affiliates of hedge-fund Elliott Investment Management and commodities company Vitol were approved.

Delaware Judge Leonard Stark stated in his order that a new date will be set for the final hearing once the court has received input from Officer Robert Pincus and parties involved in the process, as well as creditors. The court will hold a hearing in person on Monday for the parties to be heard.

Pincus, backed by several creditors and buyers, had requested an adjournment to the final hearing on Wednesday. Gold Reserve, who wants the judge to confirm its subsidiary's winning bid as the auction winner, has told the court that it is opposed to any change in the calendar.

Citgo's bids for the contract have sparked a heated competition at the last moment, but they have also exacerbated disagreements among the parties and complicated the case.

The postponement will likely add to the eight-year-old court case that was first brought by the miner Crystallex, against Venezuela. This has allowed more than a dozen other creditors to seek compensation from Venezuela for debt defaults or expropriations.

(source: Reuters)