The Serbian Privatization Agency, which has obtained the arbitral award in its favor after accusing Alita of failing to meet its commitments under a deal on the privatization of Beogradska Industrija Piva (BIP), said this in a press release on 6 October.
According to the press release, the arbitration court's ruling provides that the arbitral award of 11.35 million euros can be recovered through the liquidation of the debtor.
Alita, which is controlled by the Swedish financial group Swedbank, has said that it does not accept the arbitration court's decision, which was received on 1 October and gave 15 days from the date of receipt to pay the fine.
The arbitration institution ordered Alita and Sweden's United Nordic Beverages to pay the Serbian Privatization Agency a total fine of 16.849 million euros, instead of around 68 million euros sought by the agency, for violations of the BIP privatization agreement. Alita is to pay 11.35 million euros.
The Lithuanian company's position is that its involvement as a respondent in the arbitration proceedings initiated by Serbia with the aim of imposing a fine on ALT Investicijos and United Nordic Beverages was unfounded, because it is not a party to the BIP privatization agreement and has never concluded any agreement to settle the dispute in arbitration.
Foreign arbitration awards must be recognized and enforced by Lithuanian courts. Alita has already challenged the Serbian arbitration court's jurisdiction to the Lithuanian Appeals Court, with a hearing scheduled for 3 December.
The Serbian Privatization Agency nationalized shares in BIP in 2009 claiming that the then Alita, which was later split into two companies, and United Nordic Beverages failed to meet their commitments to invest in the Serbian brewery and buy out its minority shareholders, and in November 2010 took the Lithuanian company to the Serbian arbitration court seeking around 68 million euros in damages.
In September 2009, Alita split up its operations into two separate companies: Alita Group took over the alcoholic drink production facilities in Alytus and Anykščiai, while Alita, which was later renamed ALT Investicijos and went bankrupt some time later, remained in charge of the group's investment in Serbia.
Alita Group had 16.242 million litas (EUR 4.7m) in outstanding short-term loans on 30 June. Its long-term debt to Swedbank amounted to 47.1 million litas.
Alita Group's first-half consolidated net losses this year rose by 6.5 percent year-on-year to 4.639 million litas, as revenues dropped by 22.8 percent to 27.835 million litas.
FR&R Invest, an investment subsidiary of Swedbank, currently holds an 84.56 percent stake in Alita Group, which is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius stock exchange.
