November 22 (SeeNews) - Ivica Todoric, owner of Croatia's Agrokor, said he will ask the country's top court this week to rule on the constitutionality of the special law under which the government seized managerial control of the ailing food-to-retail concern in April.
Todoric said, in a post on his blog on Tuesday, that the law on extraordinary administration of companies of systemic importance, commonly known as Lex Agrokor, and the receiver, appointed under this law to lead the restructuring of the troubled concern, are illegal and detrimental to Agrokor and the Croatian economy.
"Our economy, because of the unconstitutional Lex, has lost the synergy potentials and markets that my team and I have built for decades," Todoric noted.
He added that three neighbouring countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Serbia - have declined to recognise Lex Agrokor.
"Slovenia, a member of the European Union that applies the norms and values that Croatia must apply, has clearly expressed the view that this law can not be recognized in such a legal framework," Todoric said.
He also claimed that Lex Agrokor is detrimental to all those who have legitimate interests in the success of Agrokor, including its owner, investors, workers, suppliers, the Croatian state, as well as the countries in the region where Agrokor has units.
In April, the Croatian government stepped in to prevent the collapse of indebted Agrokor, appointing a receiver to lead the restructuring process. Todoric was stripped of his managerial rights under Lex Agrokor but remains owner of the concern.