Arūnas Laurinaitis, a former president of Lithuania’s Achema Group, has confirmed his bid to acquire a controlling stake in the group for almost 303 million euros.
Laurinaitis says he has already faced resistance from the group’s main shareholder, Lyda Lubienė, and turned to court to secure his right of first refusal and acquire the 54-percent stake held by Lubienė and her daughter.
“I have filed a lawsuit because I want my right of first refusal as a shareholder to be respected and guaranteed so that I can acquire the company on the same terms as other potential buyers,” Laurinaitis told reporters on Thursday.
In his words, Lubienė and her daughter have so far ignored his intentions to acquire the shares and also prevented minority shareholders from exercising their right of first refusal by informing them that foreign investors, with whom initial agreements have already been signed, are seeking to acquire Achema Group.
In June 2024, Swiss energy company MET Group announced such intention to buy the Lithuanian company.
Currently, Laurinaitis own 4.6 percent of Achema Group.
On Thursday, the Vilnius Regional Court confirmed to BNS it received and accepted Laurinaitis’ lawsuit against Lubienė and Viktorija Lubytė on February 3. The hearing date is yet to be announced.
Laurinaitis says he wants to keep the group as a Lithuanian company that could be a “pillar of national security”.
The businessman also claims he already has a strategy in place, which he would start implementing from the very first days after becoming the majority shareholder.
He assured that he would be joined by “reputable, clean” businesspeople and that the company would be financed from different sources.
Laurinaitis also says he has a clear strategy and vision for the group’s development, which will allow Achema Group to shift to green production.
MET Group announced its intention to acquire 54.07 percent of Achema Group’s shares at the beginning of June last year. This stake is held by Lubienė and her daughter.
The Swiss company also said at the time it would seek to reach an agreement with the group’s minority shareholders and buy back their shares.
MET Group CEO Benjamin Lakatos said at the time he was aware of one of the minority shareholders’ intention to buy Achema Group.
Lubienė now owns 41.59 percent of Achema Group, and her daughter owns another 12.47 percent. The remainder belongs to 13 individuals.
Achema Group includes about 40 companies operating in the Baltic states, Poland, Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Croatia in the fields of fertiliser production, agribusiness, handling and logistics, energy, gas production and trade.
The group made a consolidated net loss of 17.05 million euros in 2023, compared to a net profit of 73.07 million euros in 2022, and paid out 24.358 million euros in dividends for 2023.
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