December 18 (SeeNews) - Croatia's Fortenova Group, the successor to the collapsed concern Agrokor, said on Wednesday that the Slovenian competition protection agency, AVK, has unfoundedly seized Agrokor's shares in Slovenian retailer Mercator.
Fortenova said in a statement that AVK passed a decision on December 16 which temporarily seizes Agrokor's holdings in Mercator.
"The seizure is based on an unprecedented disproportionate, non-final penalty in the amount of 53.9 million euro ($59.9 million), imposed by AVK on Agrokor d.d. in September 2019 in relation to a concentration case that Agrokor is appealing in the Slovenian court. The non-final penalty is clearly disproportionate since the company in question, Costella, generates globally only slightly more than 1 million euro in revenue yearly," Fortenova said.
"The seizure of Mercator shares is in itself also largely disproportionate, since the shares in question have an appraised value in excess of 140 million euro, and the appealable penalty – that is being contested – is in the amount of 53.9 million euro," it added.
According to Fortenova, AVK's decision was issued without any underlying court decision and with no valid legal justification.
In September, AVK said it is imposing a 53.9 million euro fine to Swiss-based Agrokor AG because of its failure to notify the agency about its 2016 acquisition of UAE-based Ardeya Global, which owns Slovenian water bottler Costella.
In its Wednesday statement Fortenova recalled that Agrokor has explained that the above acquisition had nothing to do with Agrokor d.d. but was executed solely by the group's former owner Ivica Todoric and Swiss-based Agrokor AG, which had not been under the control of Agrokor d.d. at the time and was initially run solely by Todoric.
The business operations of Croatia's troubled food-to-retail concern Agrokor were transferred to the newly formed Fortenova Group in April 2019 under a settlement agreement with Agrokor's creditors endorsed by a Zagreb court in June 2018.
($=0.8989 euro)
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