ZAGREB, May 2, 2018 – Franck, a Croatian coffee, tea and snacks company, stated on Wednesday that it would not be possible for the creditors’ council for Agrokor to be established by 10 July, after the High Commercial Court accepted the complaints of ten local and foreign creditors and quashed the decision on establishing a creditors’ council along the lines of the differentiation of creditors into five groups.
The High Commercial Court (VTS) made public on 27 April its ruling of 5 April on sustaining the objections of Franck and other nine domestic and foreign suppliers and it overruled the decision made by the Zagreb-based Commercial Court of 26 January on setting up a council of creditors based on their categorisation in five groups.
Franck recalls deadlines and time terms for the choice of members sitting on a creditors’ council and believes that those deadlines cannot be complied with, which is why this company, which is one of the creditors, warns that the creditors’ council cannot be set up before the expiry of a deadline set for 10 July.
Franck and majority of other appellants objected to the Commercial Court’s decision to green-light a proposal that the creditors’ council will consist of five members, although the council can have up to nine members. They also appealed against the definition for the categorisation of creditors.
The complaints were submitted by Franck, Addiko Bank, Euroherc, OTP bank, Splitska Banka, Vives Investment, Talal Springs, Ben Oldman Special Situations Fund, Banque Pictet&Cie and Sberbank of Russia.
On 26 January, the Commercial Court published the ruling “on assigning creditors to groups based on the proposal of the Extraordinary Commissioner, who acted in compliance with the obligation stipulated in Art. 18, item 1 of the Act on the Extraordinary Administration Proceeding in Companies of Systemic Importance for the Republic of Croatia, within the scope of which the Extraordinary Commissioner had addressed the Court with the proposal to pre-establish the number of members of the Creditors’ Council and the way of assigning creditors to groups,” Agrokor reported at the time.
“The sorting of creditors and defining of groups is based on the records of claims filed and the differences in the legal position of each of the groups. Creditors who will be entitled to appoint members to the Creditors’ Council are creditors with verified claims as well as creditors the contestations of whose claims will be renounced.”
