MOSCOW, May 30 - RAPSI. The Moscow Commercial Court set July 17 for the first hearings of two Investbank lawsuits to recover 12.5 million euros from Latvia's national airline Air Baltic Corporation (airBaltic) and Baltijas Aviacijas Sistemas (BAS), the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Tuesday.

The bank is claiming 2.2 million euros in one lawsuit and 10.3 million euros in the other.

The plaintiff's representative said that in the summer of 2011 the bank signed loan contracts with Baltijas Aviacijas Sistemas worth 2.1 million euros and 9.9 million euros.

The first loan was set to mature on July 4, 2012 and the second on June 29, 2012.

AirBaltic was the loan guarantor. The contracts stipulated that the company was to pay interest on a monthly basis, but in November 2011, the borrower ceased to pay interest and the bank took the matter to court, claiming the premature repayment of the loans and corresponding interest.

AirBaltic's vice president Janis Vanags told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) that "airBaltic does not have any documents stating its liability in regard to the Russian bank in question."

Following the collapse of Latvijas Krajbanka, the government bought a 47.2 percent stake in airBaltic, pledged by BAS at the par value of 224,000 lats, since BAS, airBaltic's shareholder, could not meet its liabilities.

Investbank was founded in the city of Kaliningrad in 1989. Its head office moved to Moscow in 2011. Investbank is a multi-purpose bank which serves over 20,000 companies and 200,000 private individuals in 84 cities and towns in the Russian Federation.

Air Baltic Corporation (airBaltic) is a joint stock company, founded in 1995. The Latvian government holds 99.8 percent of the company shares. In 2011, airBaltic served over 3.3 million passengers and owns over 34 planes.