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Lithuanian court rules Alita takeover illegal

Roberta Valikonė / Irmanto Gelūno / BNS nuotr.
Roberta ValikonėDienos redaktorė
Šampanas  / Fotolia nuotr.
Šampanas / Fotolia nuotr.

A court has ruled that a deal in which FR&R Invest, a company of Sweden's financial group Swedbank, in 2011 took over control of Lithuania's alcoholic beverage producer Alita Group was illegal.

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The Kaunas Regional Court on Wednesday declared invalid Alita's share subscription agreement, changes to its authorized share capital and its new articles of association, Gintare Vezelyte-Putnikiene of the court told BNS.

"The decision may be appealed within 30 days from the date of issue," she said.

Alita's major shareholders on Oct. 3, 2011 opened the way for the company's largest creditor, Swedbank, to convert around 96 million litas (EUR 27.8 mln) worth of debt into equity.

The group then reduced the company's authorized capital to 3.126 million litas and annulled part of its balance-sheet losses.

Shortly afterwards, the capital was increased to 20 million litas. FR&R Invest purchased Alita's new 16.874-million-litas share issue, thus becoming its majority shareholder with an 84.56 percent stake.

Alita Group is quoted on the Secondary List of the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius stock exchange.