Saif Markhan Alketbi smiles mildly as he lists his possessions: the investment company with stakes in technology start-ups, the investments in securities, the real estate projects in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the network of pharmacies, the breeding farm for racing camels. He even hired an auditor to evaluate his assets. According to a report as of December 31, 2022, it was 276,425,602 US dollars, more than a quarter of a billion. But why is it all?
Alketbi wants to prove something: “I am not a straw man. “Neither for Sberbank nor for anyone else,” he said in a video call with profil on Tuesday last week. In 2022, Alketbi bought 42 percent of Croatia's largest food company Fortenova from the Russian Sberbank for 400 million euros. At the time, he thought he was getting a bargain. Sberbank sold the shares under great time pressure, shortly before EU sanctions made business with the Russian state-owned financial institution impossible. Today, two years later, Alketbi no longer sees the deal as positively. He has since been forced out of the company with the help of EU sanctions. The case is not only affecting courts in Malta, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, it has even resulted in the Viennese lawyer Gabriel Lansky being banned from entering Croatia.
Antonio Gerovac is not a man of many words. In a letter of just two sentences dated October 29, 2024, the head of the Croatian secret police informs the Viennese lawyer Gabriel Lansky that one of Europe's fundamental rights no longer applies to him: the freedom of movement of people. Lansky has been banned from entering Croatia since September 4, 2024 “for reasons of national security,” it is said succinctly. It does not say which authority exactly imposed this entry ban, on the basis of what evidence and how one could possibly appeal against this decision. “This is an unprecedented attempt at intimidation,” says Gabriel Lansky to profil. His law firm represents the Arab investor Saif Markhan Alketbi in the fight for his Croatian investment. If Lansky has his way, Alketbi was coldly expropriated under the guise of Russia sanctions.
He is not alone in this opinion. “The takeover is criminal. “That has nothing to do with due process,” says Karolina Vidović Krišto. The well-known Croatian journalist has been following the case critically over the past four years as an opposition member, and is now running for president. Fortenova is not just a food company in Croatia, but an economic factor. With 45,000 employees, the group of companies is the largest employer in Southeast Europe and had sales of 5.8 billion euros in 2023. For comparison: Croatia's total economic output this year was 76 billion euros.
A fall and a rise.
When the group, then still called Agrokor, threatened to collapse in 2017 after years of growth under the weight of billions in liabilities, this triggered a national crisis in Croatia. The solution was a specially passed law to save systemically important companies, called “Lex Agrokor”. The company was placed under state administration. However, the law also created completely new ownership relationships: Instead of receiving at least part of their claims in bankruptcy proceedings, the creditors - from small flower suppliers to the financing banks - were given a stake in the group, which was renamed Fortenova, according to the amount of their claims. And the largest lender suddenly became the largest shareholder with 42.5 percent of the shares: the Russian state-owned Sberbank.
Pavao Vujnovac is also among the smaller new partners. The bull-necked entrepreneur from Osijek has made immense wealth within just a few years: As the owner of a small, loss-making gas supplier called PPD, he managed to negotiate exclusive supply contracts with the Russian Gazprom. He sold Russian gas primarily to public sector companies that concluded long-term contracts with guaranteed purchase volumes with Vujnovac. “Vujnovac’s rise to economic tycoon is closely linked to the ruling HDZ party,” says politician Karolina Vidović Krišto. A mutually beneficial relationship: the state-owned companies ensured secure billions in sales for PPD. Conversely, for example, PPD financed the presidential election campaign of HDZ candidate Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in 2015.
Vujnovac expanded with the profits from the gas business: he bought chemical companies, ports and logistics companies. And after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he recognized his opportunity at Fortenova. The EU's first sanctions package in February 2022 marked the beginning of the major economic unification of Russia and Europe. Sberbank also cut its ties. She transferred her shares in Fortenova to a Russian company called SBK Art and was looking for a buyer. A deal with the Hungarian investment company Indotek had already been signed, but had to be canceled due to political pressure. Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenković personally campaigned against the sale to the Hungarians.
The takeover
In July 2022, Sberbank finally ended up on the EU sanctions list, and from then on things had to move quickly. The EU had given a deadline of October 31st so that Sberbank's business could be processed in Europe. There was only one problem: The Fortenova Group had quickly declared that it would withdraw the voting rights of its largest shareholder, the Russian Sberbank subsidiary SBK Art.
Pavao Vujnovac war in der Zwischenzeit nicht untätig gewesen. Über eine Gesellschaft in Malta hatte er Anteile früherer Fortenova-Gläubiger aufgekauft und war mit 18 Prozent nach der russischen SBK Art der zweitgrößte Aktionär geworden. Die reichten zur Machtübernahme. Nur ein Bruchteil der unzähligen kroatischen Klein- und Kleinstgesellschafter, die im Rahmen der Fortenova-Sanierung an dem Konzern beteiligt werden waren, nahm überhaupt an den Gesellschafterversammlungen teil. Es wurde ihnen auch nicht leicht gemacht: Der Sitz der Fortenova-Holding lag nicht in Kroatien, sondern in den Niederlanden. Nachdem der russischen SBK Art das Stimmrecht entzogen worden war, reichten Vujnovac 28 Prozent, um Mehrheitsbeschlüsse zu fassen.
Pavao Vujnovac had not been idle in the meantime. Through a company in Malta, he had bought up shares from former Fortenova creditors and, with 18 percent, had become the second largest shareholder after the Russian SBK Art. That was enough to take power. Only a fraction of the countless Croatian small and micro shareholders who were involved in the group as part of the Fortenova restructuring even took part in the shareholders' meetings. It wasn't made easy for them either: the headquarters of the Fortenova Holding was not in Croatia, but in the Netherlands. After the Russian SBK Art was deprived of its voting rights, Vujnovac's 28 percent was enough to make majority decisions.
On the last day of the EU deadline, October 31, 2022, Sberbank can still sell its subsidiary SBK Art including the Fortenova shares. A former Fortenova manager based in Dubai looked for investors in the Emirates and found Saif Markhan Alketbi. 400 million euros for 42 percent of a - now profitable - group with around six billion euros in sales was an opportunity, Alketbi assures profil. Simply by refinancing Fortenova's unfavorable credit lines, the sum could have been earned back in no time. He never got the opportunity.
At the instigation of the Croatian Foreign Ministry, the company SBK Art, which was taken over by Alketbi, will also end up on the sanctions list at the end of 2022. The reason: The Arab investor financed the takeover with a loan from the Russian Gazprombank. This is an indication that SBK Art could still be under Russian control. “The Council of the European Union insists that Sberbank continues to exercise control over SBK Art without providing evidence of this,” says lawyer Gabriel Lansky. And presents himself: an overview of Saif Markhan Alketbi's assets, photos of his fleet and camel breeding. Lansky visited her himself. He has the opportunity to do this often; his law firm opened its own branch in Dubai last year, specializing in sanctions law. He coordinates a whole series of proceedings: before the European Court in Luxembourg he wants to ensure that SBK Art is removed from the sanctions list. In Malta and the Netherlands he is going through the courts to combat the deprivation of voting rights. In the meantime, decisions have been made at Fortenova. While the largest shareholder had no voting rights, the management initiated a sales process - including the shares of the sanctioned SBK Art. Pavao Vujnovac was awarded the contract for a total sum of 660 million euros. Fortenova said in response to a profil query that there would have been no other choice because SBK Art was “obviously still controlled by Russian state interests”.
“This is a de facto expropriation that has nothing to do with the intention of sanctions and represents a serious abuse of European law,” says Gabriel Lansky. The lawyer's entry ban in Croatia is now also a concern for diplomacy. The Austrian embassy in Zagreb sent a written verbal note to the Croatian Foreign Office on November 25th and asked them to check the “authenticity and accuracy” of the letter from intelligence chief Antonio Gerovac to Lansky.
An answer is still pending.
Saif Markhan Alketbi smiles mildly as he lists his possessions: the investment company with stakes in technology start-ups, the investments in securities, the real estate projects in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the network of pharmacies, the breeding farm for racing camels. He even hired an auditor to evaluate his assets. According to a report as of December 31, 2022, it was 276,425,602 US dollars, more than a quarter of a billion. But why is it all?
Alketbi wants to prove something: “I am not a straw man. “Neither for Sberbank nor for anyone else,” he said in a video call with profil on Tuesday last week. In 2022, Alketbi bought 42 percent of Croatia's largest food company Fortenova from the Russian Sberbank for 400 million euros. At the time, he thought he was getting a bargain. Sberbank sold the shares under great time pressure, shortly before EU sanctions made business with the Russian state-owned financial institution impossible. Today, two years later, Alketbi no longer sees the deal as positively. He has since been forced out of the company with the help of EU sanctions. The case is not only affecting courts in Malta, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, it has even resulted in the Viennese lawyer Gabriel Lansky being banned from entering Croatia.
Antonio Gerovac is not a man of many words. In a letter of just two sentences dated October 29, 2024, the head of the Croatian secret police informs the Viennese lawyer Gabriel Lansky that one of Europe's fundamental rights no longer applies to him: the freedom of movement of people. Lansky has been banned from entering Croatia since September 4, 2024 “for reasons of national security,” it is said succinctly. It does not say which authority exactly imposed this entry ban, on the basis of what evidence and how one could possibly appeal against this decision. “This is an unprecedented attempt at intimidation,” says Gabriel Lansky to profil. His law firm represents the Arab investor Saif Markhan Alketbi in the fight for his Croatian investment. If Lansky has his way, Alketbi was coldly expropriated under the guise of Russia sanctions.
He is not alone in this opinion. “The takeover is criminal. “That has nothing to do with due process,” says Karolina Vidović Krišto. The well-known Croatian journalist has been following the case critically over the past four years as an opposition member, and is now running for president. Fortenova is not just a food company in Croatia, but an economic factor. With 45,000 employees, the group of companies is the largest employer in Southeast Europe and had sales of 5.8 billion euros in 2023. For comparison: Croatia's total economic output this year was 76 billion euros.
A fall and a rise.
When the group, then still called Agrokor, threatened to collapse in 2017 after years of growth under the weight of billions in liabilities, this triggered a national crisis in Croatia. The solution was a specially passed law to save systemically important companies, called “Lex Agrokor”. The company was placed under state administration. However, the law also created completely new ownership relationships: Instead of receiving at least part of their claims in bankruptcy proceedings, the creditors - from small flower suppliers to the financing banks - were given a stake in the group, which was renamed Fortenova, according to the amount of their claims. And the largest lender suddenly became the largest shareholder with 42.5 percent of the shares: the Russian state-owned Sberbank.
Pavao Vujnovac is also among the smaller new partners. The bull-necked entrepreneur from Osijek has made immense wealth within just a few years: As the owner of a small, loss-making gas supplier called PPD, he managed to negotiate exclusive supply contracts with the Russian Gazprom. He sold Russian gas primarily to public sector companies that concluded long-term contracts with guaranteed purchase volumes with Vujnovac. “Vujnovac’s rise to economic tycoon is closely linked to the ruling HDZ party,” says politician Karolina Vidović Krišto. A mutually beneficial relationship: the state-owned companies ensured secure billions in sales for PPD. Conversely, for example, PPD financed the presidential election campaign of HDZ candidate Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in 2015.
Vujnovac expanded with the profits from the gas business: he bought chemical companies, ports and logistics companies. And after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he recognized his opportunity at Fortenova. The EU's first sanctions package in February 2022 marked the beginning of the major economic unification of Russia and Europe. Sberbank also cut its ties. She transferred her shares in Fortenova to a Russian company called SBK Art and was looking for a buyer. A deal with the Hungarian investment company Indotek had already been signed, but had to be canceled due to political pressure. Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenković personally campaigned against the sale to the Hungarians.
The takeover
In July 2022, Sberbank finally ended up on the EU sanctions list, and from then on things had to move quickly. The EU had given a deadline of October 31st so that Sberbank's business could be processed in Europe. There was only one problem: The Fortenova Group had quickly declared that it would withdraw the voting rights of its largest shareholder, the Russian Sberbank subsidiary SBK Art.
Pavao Vujnovac war in der Zwischenzeit nicht untätig gewesen. Über eine Gesellschaft in Malta hatte er Anteile früherer Fortenova-Gläubiger aufgekauft und war mit 18 Prozent nach der russischen SBK Art der zweitgrößte Aktionär geworden. Die reichten zur Machtübernahme. Nur ein Bruchteil der unzähligen kroatischen Klein- und Kleinstgesellschafter, die im Rahmen der Fortenova-Sanierung an dem Konzern beteiligt werden waren, nahm überhaupt an den Gesellschafterversammlungen teil. Es wurde ihnen auch nicht leicht gemacht: Der Sitz der Fortenova-Holding lag nicht in Kroatien, sondern in den Niederlanden. Nachdem der russischen SBK Art das Stimmrecht entzogen worden war, reichten Vujnovac 28 Prozent, um Mehrheitsbeschlüsse zu fassen.
Pavao Vujnovac had not been idle in the meantime. Through a company in Malta, he had bought up shares from former Fortenova creditors and, with 18 percent, had become the second largest shareholder after the Russian SBK Art. That was enough to take power. Only a fraction of the countless Croatian small and micro shareholders who were involved in the group as part of the Fortenova restructuring even took part in the shareholders' meetings. It wasn't made easy for them either: the headquarters of the Fortenova Holding was not in Croatia, but in the Netherlands. After the Russian SBK Art was deprived of its voting rights, Vujnovac's 28 percent was enough to make majority decisions.
On the last day of the EU deadline, October 31, 2022, Sberbank can still sell its subsidiary SBK Art including the Fortenova shares. A former Fortenova manager based in Dubai looked for investors in the Emirates and found Saif Markhan Alketbi. 400 million euros for 42 percent of a - now profitable - group with around six billion euros in sales was an opportunity, Alketbi assures profil. Simply by refinancing Fortenova's unfavorable credit lines, the sum could have been earned back in no time. He never got the opportunity.
At the instigation of the Croatian Foreign Ministry, the company SBK Art, which was taken over by Alketbi, will also end up on the sanctions list at the end of 2022. The reason: The Arab investor financed the takeover with a loan from the Russian Gazprombank. This is an indication that SBK Art could still be under Russian control. “The Council of the European Union insists that Sberbank continues to exercise control over SBK Art without providing evidence of this,” says lawyer Gabriel Lansky. And presents himself: an overview of Saif Markhan Alketbi's assets, photos of his fleet and camel breeding. Lansky visited her himself. He has the opportunity to do this often; his law firm opened its own branch in Dubai last year, specializing in sanctions law. He coordinates a whole series of proceedings: before the European Court in Luxembourg he wants to ensure that SBK Art is removed from the sanctions list. In Malta and the Netherlands he is going through the courts to combat the deprivation of voting rights. In the meantime, decisions have been made at Fortenova. While the largest shareholder had no voting rights, the management initiated a sales process - including the shares of the sanctioned SBK Art. Pavao Vujnovac was awarded the contract for a total sum of 660 million euros. Fortenova said in response to a profil query that there would have been no other choice because SBK Art was “obviously still controlled by Russian state interests”.
“This is a de facto expropriation that has nothing to do with the intention of sanctions and represents a serious abuse of European law,” says Gabriel Lansky. The lawyer's entry ban in Croatia is now also a concern for diplomacy. The Austrian embassy in Zagreb sent a written verbal note to the Croatian Foreign Office on November 25th and asked them to check the “authenticity and accuracy” of the letter from intelligence chief Antonio Gerovac to Lansky.
An answer is still pending.
