The Croatian government said on Thursday that it could not comment on a transaction in which a stake in Fortenova Grupa was acquired by an investor from the United Arab Emirates because it did not have official information on it and was not involved in the transaction.

The competent authorities will look into all relevant facts regarding the takeover of Sberbank’s interest in Fortenova Grupa, the government said.

It recalled that the role of Russia’s Sberbank as a creditor and one of the owners of the group was a result of business decisions made by the former management of the Agrokor food and retail company, and not the government’s choice.

It is a well-known fact that Sberbank had previously announced its plan to leave Fortenova’s ownership structure, sources in the government said, adding that the government had cooperated and communicated with the group’s management with regard to ways to deal with the consequences of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the related regime of sanctions on the company’s business, taking care of the overall economic and financial stability.

But there was no communication, cooperation or concrete information on the business transaction the media reported about on Wednesday evening, the government said.

The financial transaction, which refers to a stake of 43.4% in the Dutch holding company Fortenova Group – the sole shareholder of Fortenova Grupa d.d. – was completed on 31 October, the Millenium Promocija public relations agency said in a press release on Wednesday evening.

Saif Alketbi of the United Arab Emirates acquired the interest by buying Sberbank’s stake in the Croatian company.

Alketbi’s office said the acquisition marked the beginning of a period of strategic investment by the UAE investor in Croatia and that it was confident the investment in Fortenova Grupa would be very useful for the group and the Croatian economy.

Fortenova Grupa has no official information on the sale of Sberbank’s stake, the group said on Wednesday evening after it was announced that the investor from the UAE had acquired a stake in the company.

“Sberbank’s assets have been under sanctions and the sale would require special permits from bodies in charge of implementing the sanctions,” the group said in response to a query from Hina.

The first potential buyer of Sberbank’s stake, the Hungarian Indotek, did not manage to obtain those permits, the group said.

In a second attempt to sell the Sberbank stake, with the potential buyers being pension funds, the necessary permits were obtained, however, representatives of the German Allianz sitting on the AZ Fund Supervisory Board stopped the transaction, Fortenova Grupa added.

“According to information available to Fortenova Grupa, no further sale permits were obtained and we do not see how a valid sale could have occurred. Also, following due diligence by the pension funds, there were no other instances of due diligence. If the sanctions were bypassed in the process, that constitutes a criminal act and the company did not take part in it,” Fortenova Grupa said.

The Russian Sberbank entered Fortenova Grupa’s ownership structure in April 2019 after the successful implementation of a settlement between creditors of the Agrokor food and retail company. That stake in Fortenova Grupa is owned by SBK ART LLC, whose ultimate majority owner is Sberbank of Russia.