"The court's decision is incomprehensible and perplexing. Moreover, such a ruling has no legal grounds, as the decision is not related to Plass Investments' claims at issue in this case. This is an unprecedented court ruling, and we will immediately file a separate appeal in court to have this decision reversed," FR&R Invest CEO Jan Aberg said in a press release on Friday.
Alita Group has asked the Kaunas Regional Court, which issued the freeze order on Wednesday, to reject Plass Investments' request for interim precautionary measures.
"The anonymous Cypriot company has time and resources to swamp the court with endless claims that show neither good faith nor clear intention. Despite these circumstances, we will continue our legal fight and will defend the group through all available legal means," Alita Group CEO Paulius Kibisa said.
The Kaunas court froze the shares held in Alita Group by FR& R Invest and Vytautas Junevičius and prohibited any transactions involving the sale of securities, brands and movable and immovable property, including Alita's subsidiary Anykščių Vynas (Anykščiai Wine).
FR& R Invest owns 84.56 percent of Alita Group and Junevičius holds a 14.5 percent stake.
Cypriot-registered Plass Investments, a minority shareholder of Alita Group, in early October 2011 started a marathon legal battle challenging Alita's rescue and restructuring plans, but it was still too late to prevent a deal in which FR& R Invest acquired a majority stake in Alita by converting the group's debt into equity from being closed.
Plass Investments is contesting both the Competition Council's permission for the ownership change and the price for the shares that was approved by the then Securities Commission, whose functions have been taken over the central Bank of Lithuania.
Alita Group fell into financial troubles after Serbia's privatization agency filed almost 240 million litas (EUR 70 m) worth of claims against the company over an alleged violation of a deal on the privatization of the Serbian brewery Beogradska Industrija Piva (BIP) by ALT Investicijos, a now-bankrupt company that is related to Alita's shareholders.
Both Alita Group and Anykščių Vynas are quoted on the Secondary List of the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius stock exchange.
2012-05-18 17:18
FR&R Invest CEO calls Alita share freeze perplexing
The chief executive officer of FR&R Invest, a company owned by Sweden's Swedbank Group, said that a court's decision to place a freeze on 99 percent of shares in Lithuania's alcohol production group Alita is "perplexing" and will be immediately appealed.
Alita / Eriko Ovčarenko / BNS nuotr.
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