June 28 (SeeNews) - Croatia's Fortenova said on Wednesday that the interim relief judge at the Court of Amsterdam on Tuesday rejected all remaining claims by SBK Art, and Saif Alketbi, essentially aimed at attempting to halt the sale process of Fortenova Group MidCo B.V. and dictate the course of that process, despite being sanctioned parties without voting rights.
“This vexatious litigation by SBK Art and Saif Alketbi has now been rejected for the third time by the Dutch judiciary,” Fortenova said in a press release.
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SBK Art is affiliate of state-owned Sberbank of Russia (Sberbank), with is is under international sanctions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. UAE investor Saif Alketbi announced that on October 31 last year he completed a transaction to buy Sberbank’s 43.4% stake in Fortenova. Fortenova said back then that the assets of Sberbank are under sanctions and the sale requires the issuance of necessary approvals by the authorities in charge of implementing the sanctions.
The judgment on Tuesday was made following the oral hearing of the parties on June 14, 2023, where the court initially rejected the request to prohibit the convening of the depositary receipts holders’ meeting. On Tuesday, both that decision and the present judgment rejecting all other requests by SBK Art and Saif Alketbi were thoroughly reasoned, according to the press release.
The ongoing process of exploring interest in the purchase of Fortenova Group MidCo, according to the Amsterdam Court, has adequate safeguards to protect the interests of all stakeholders. The claims that Fortenova Group intends to eliminate SBK Art through the sale of MidCo to the second-largest unsanctioned shareholder at an unreasonably low price are deemed “insufficiently plausible” by the judgment of the Court of Amsterdam.
Fortenova, a successor to collapsed food-to-retail concern Agrokor, is Croatia’s top employer and largest retailer and a major food producer.
Earlier this month, Fortenova said that it plans to launch the sale of its agriculture units as part of a new financing deal with its current biggest creditor, HPS Investment Partners.
No bids were submitted in an international process for examining the interest of potential investors for the purchase of Fortenova Group MidCo B.V., the Dutch holding company that fully owns Croatia's largest privately-held business group Fortenova, Croatian media reported earlier this month.