Dispute over control of the ‘Achema Group’ – A. Laurinaitis’s appeal to the Supreme Court

Arūnas Laurinaitis, former president of the “Achemos Group” and now a minority shareholder, is appealing against the Court of Appeal’s decision to dismiss the case concerning his right to acquire a controlling stake in the group.

As Tautvilė Merkevičiūtė, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court of Lithuania (LAT), told ELTA, A. Laurinaitis’s appeal in cassation was received on 21 August, and no decision has yet been made on whether to accept this appeal.

At the start of last year, the former president of the “Achema Group” filed a claim with the Vilnius Regional Court regarding the right of first refusal to acquire a controlling stake in the group.

This year, he withdrew the claim; the Court of Appeal then accepted the statement by the claimant, A. Laurinaitis, regarding the withdrawal of the claim and, by a ruling dated 21 May, discontinued the civil proceedings.

When he previously brought the matter before the court, A. Laurinaitis claimed that the group’s main shareholders, Lyda Lubienė and Viktorija Lubytė, wishing to sell shares to “MET Group”, had disregarded the rights of existing shareholders and, having submitted an initial offer to sell the shares to a foreign company, had refused to communicate. 

A. Laurinaitis announced his intention to acquire a block of shares in the group worth almost 303 million euros back in February last year.

Some time earlier, in May 2024, the media reported that the group’s main shareholders, Lyda Lubienė and Viktorija Lubytė, intended to sell the group to the Hungarian energy company “MET Group”.

Subsequently, “MET Group” terminated the deal, citing unresolved shareholder disputes within the “Achema Group” as the reason for its decision.

The Court of Appeal also imposed a fine of 2,500 euros on A. Laurinaitis for abuse of process, and ordered him to reimburse 12,300 euros in court fees.

A. Laurinaitis will also have to pay the “Achema Group” €14,500 in legal costs incurred in the court of first instance, as well as a further €1,350 of the group’s costs in the Court of Appeal.

The defendants, L. Lubienė and V. Lubytė, will each have to pay the former president of the group €647.3 in legal costs. 

As reported in the media, “MET Group”, which sought to conclude the transaction, was most interested in the group’s subsidiary “Klaipėda Sea Cargo Company” (KLASCO). Following the announcement, both politicians and business representatives warned that the potential buyer of the group should be assessed by the country’s authorities.

This April, citing sources, the ‘Verslo žinios’ portal reported that a potential new buyer of KLASCO, which is managed by the group, was the “Klaipėda Terminal Group”, a conglomerate operating in the port and comprising stevedoring, ship mooring, wholesale trade and property companies. The company itself did not confirm this information to the portal.

Currently, L. Lubienė and her daughter V. Lubytė, the wife and daughter respectively of Bronislovas Lubys, a signatory of the Act of Independence, hold 54.07 per cent of the shares in “Achema Group”.