MOSCOW, October 19 - RAPSI, Alyona Yegorova. The Central Bank has requested a commercial court on Wednesday to order an appraisal of a shipyard's shares that were earlier pledged as security for bank loans, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) reports from the courtroom.

The request was filed to take recourse against 88.32 percent of the shares in the Baltiisky Zavod shipyard, which were pledged under a contract on July 15

, 2008 as security for Mezhprombank loans totaling roughly 32 billion rubles ($1 billion).

The regulatory authority proposed Ernst and Young as the appraiser.

The owners of the shares is Yunior, TekhnikLine, Nano-Stry and the Trust Holding are the defendants.

The defendants asked for more time to propose a appraiser. The judge has declared a recess until October 21.

Mezhprombank's administrator, the Deposit Insurance Agency, requested the court on Wednesday to involve it as a co-claimant.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said on October 12 that the Central Bank had transferred the Baltiisky Zavod with its entire 8 billion rubles ($258 million) in debt to the United Shipbuilding Corporation for management.