An interim relief judge at the Court of Amsterdam on Tuesday rejected all remaining claims by SBK Art and Saif Alketbi, essentially aimed at attempting to halt the sale of Fortenova Group MidCo B.V. and dictate the course of that process, the group said on Wednesday.

This litigation by SBK Art and Alketbi has now been rejected for the third time by the Dutch judiciary, it added.

The judgment was made following an oral hearing of the parties on 14 June, “where the court initially rejected the request to prohibit the convening of the depositary receipts holders’ meeting. Yesterday, both that decision and the present judgment rejecting all other requests by SBK Art and Saif Alketbi were thoroughly reasoned.”

“From the detailed reasoning of the judgment, the emphasis of the Court is placed on the previous rulings that sanctioned individuals such as SBK Art are prohibited from exercising voting rights, either directly or indirectly,” Fortenova said in a press release.

“Primarily, the Court concluded that Fortenova Group TopCo B.V. has a legitimate interest in selling Fortenova Group MidCo B.V. to ensure the sustainability of Fortenova Group’s financing, which has been compromised by the involvement of sanctioned parties in the ownership structure.”

The ongoing process of exploring interest in the purchase of Fortenova Group MidCo, according to the Court, “has adequate safeguards to protect the interests of all stakeholders. The claims that Fortenova Group intends to eliminate SBK Art through the sale of MidCo to the second-largest unsanctioned shareholder at an unreasonably low price are deemed ‘insufficiently plausible’.”

The Court also determined that SBK Art receives all the information to which it is entitled, while Alketbi “is not a certificate holder and therefore, under the terms of the administrative rules of Fortenova Group STAK, does not have the right to access information.”

The plaintiffs, SBK Art and Alketbi, have been ordered to cover the legal costs and court fees of Fortenova Group.

Alketbi said on 15 June that in order to protect his rights, following a Fortenova Group sale announcement, he filed a motion with a Dutch court for a temporary measure to prevent the sale.

Alketbi claims to be the biggest single shareholder in Fortenova through SBK Art. Under a decision of a Dutch appellate court from last December, he has no voting rights and cannot attend assemblies of shareholders or holders of depositary receipts in Fortenova Group.