MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. The new owners of Croatia’s Fortenova Group, after the withdrawal of Sberbank from its capital, have nothing to do with the bank, Alexander Vedyakhin, the first deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank, told reporters.
"The deal on Sberbank’s withdrawal from the Fortenova Group was closed on October 31, 2022. It is important to note that it was closed in strict accordance with the law and did not violate any sanctions from the EU. <...> The buyer was an investor from the UAE, settlements were made in national currency and were fully completed on October 31. Sber has nothing to do with the new owners of Fortenova, neither direct nor credit-related. <…> For Sber, the transaction was successful, and we received a positive financial result from it," he said.
Earlier, Frank Media, citing a source, reported that Sberbank incurred losses of 700 million euros from the transaction and the sale of shares in the Croatian retailer was financed by Gazprombank.
In early November, Sber announced that it had sold its 43% stake in the Fortenova Group to Saif Alketbi, an investor from the UAE who has significant investments in real estate, technology, tech, and holds significant investments through various private equity deals.
In 2019, Sberbank Group gained control over 40% of the assets of Fortenova Group Topco, a subsidiary of Fortenova Group, which manages entities of Croatia’s largest private food and retail company, Agrokor.
Last spring Sberbank increased its share in the Croatian Fortenova, which operates in the agricultural, food and retail sectors, to 43% through taking 4% in the company for 18.5% of shares in the largest Slovenian retailer Mercator.
In April 2017 the government of Croatia introduced state control over Fortenova Group due to debts and started a restructuring procedure. Sberbank attempted to recover 1.13 bln euro debt from it.