June 29 (SeeNews) - Austria's industrial supplier of vegetables AMMA Import Export GmbH is seeking to recover damages of some 4.5 million euro ($4.9 million) owed by North Macedonia's agricultural company Dena Produkt Import Export Veles over failed contractual obligations and misappropriated funds, Austria's embassy in North Macedonia said.
AMMA is also currently facing problems in the enforcement of a temporary measure by the Basic Civil Court of Skopje to freeze Dena's immovable property until the recovery of the damages, Austria's embassy in Skopje said in a press release on Tuesday.
In the meantime, Dena has transferred most of its assets to Global Trejd DMM Dooel Valandovo and instigated a public auction of its glasshouse on July 10. Global Trejd is owned by Emilija Zaeva-Kostova, spouse of Dena's owner, Atanas Kostov, and cousin of former prime minister Zoran Zaev, the Austrian company said.
Atanas Kostov did not reply to a SeeNews message seeking comment by the time this story was published.
AMMA entered into an exclusive cooperation agreement with Dena in 2016, which resulted in investments in Dena's growth and development. However, Dena failed to fulfil its contractual obligations and misappropriated funds invested by AMMA, according to the press release. Consequently, AMMA holds Dena liable for damages amounting to approximately 4.5 million euro.
Temporary measures initially granted by the Basic Civil Court of Skopje until the recovery of the damages were later revoked and AMMA's requests for additional temporary measures and interim injunctions against Dena and Kostov have not yielded decisions, Austria's embassy in Skopje said.
($ = 0.913344 euro)