Fortenova Group

Fortenova Group is a food manufacturer and seller based in Zagreb.

History

2022: Sberbank sells 43% of Fortenova to UAE investor

On November 2, 2022 Sberbank , he announced the sale of 43% in Fortenova Group to an investor from UAE Saif Alketby. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Fortenova Group is one of the leaders in the Croatia food manufacturing and retail market headquartered in Zagreb. Saifu Alketby, according to a press release from Sberbank, is a major UAE investor whose assets include real estate, technology and high-tech companies.

Sberbank sold 43% of one of the largest retailers in Croatia

After Sberbank was included in the sanctions lists USA and the EU in 2022, the Croatian company decided to restrict sub-sanction owners in shareholder rights. In June 2022, Fortenova announced that it had implemented a "sanctions protection mechanism." It boiled down to the fact that shareholders under EU sanctions Great Britain , or the United States could not own a stake, over 50% of shares, both independently of each other and jointly. If they exceeded the threshold of 50%, some of the shares were deprived of the right to vote on them.

In the spring of 2022, Fortenova signed an agreement to sell Sberbank's stake in Fortenova Group to the Hungarian investment company Indotek. But the deal never materialized. It follows from the Fortenova message that the first potential buyer of Sberbank's stake, Hungarian Indotek, could not get the approvals necessary for the transaction.

The second attempt was at a group of pension funds, including the AZ fund, part of the Allianz conglomerate. The funds received permission, but the deal was blocked by representatives of the German Allianz, which are members of the AZ fund supervisory board, it said.

Later, in November 2022, Fortenova announced that the sale of Sberbank's stake was made without obtaining any permits. In response, the bank's press service said that the deal was closed in accordance with all international legal norms - there were no violations. The bank noted that a large investor from the UAE acted as a buyer, the deal was closed on October 31, 2022.

Back in the spring, the bank presented its intentions to exit European assets and definitely, even then, all the details were taken into account.

2019

In April 2019 Sberbank , as a result of debt restructuring of the Croatian grocery retailer Agrokor, it acquired the rights to 40% of the assets of Fortenova, into which the Agrokor business was transformed. The company's debt to Sberbank amounted to approximately 1.1 billion euros. Later, the bank's share in the organization grew by a few more percent.^[1]

Notes