Alliance Overseas, the company that holds 15 percent in Societatea Companiilor Hoteliere Grand (GHES), managers of the five-star JW Marriott hotel in Bucharest, challenged in court a decision made by the company's general meeting of shareholders referring to the approval for taking out a loan.
The loan, worth 111 million euros, was to be contracted from Austria's Erste Bank in order to refinance an old GHES debt.
The general meeting of shareholders approved the loan by 85% of the share capital.
According to Alliance Overseas officials, the implementation of the general meeting decision was suspended through a Presidential Order obtained by going to court.
"The general meeting decision cannot be put into practice because it was challenged in court by Alliance Overseas Import Export, a partner in GHES, and the court cancelled the implementation of the respective decision through a Presidential Ordinance until the matter is put on trial," states Nicolae Trandafir, manager with Alliance Overseas Import Export.
An Alliance Overseas representative stated that they went to court because the Romanian legislation had been violated and the clauses in the contracts related to the 111 million euro funding were discriminatory. Another reason was the breach of the mandate granted by the general meeting of shareholders to the members of the GHES Board of Directors to conduct these talks. Alliance Overseas is controlled by businessman Fathi Taher.
ONT Carpati representatives confirmed that the general meeting of shareholders' decision was being challenged in court by Alliance Overseas, adding that "it is only natural that the procedure should be suspended when the decision of the general meeting is challenged in court, but this does not have any impact on the outcome of the process".
GHES shareholders comprise Bauholding Strabag Austria, which owns 51% directly and 4% indirectly, ONT Carpati, which has a 30% stake and Alliance Overseas, which holds a 15 % share. Strabag officials could not be contacted by the time the story was ready for print.
In mid 90's, GHES contracted a state-secured loan worth over 100 million euros to build the hotel. The lender was a syndicate of Austrian banks led by Erste Bank, the new owner of BCR (Banca Comerciala Romana), the biggest Romanian bank.
According to sources on the market the company still owes the banks around 80 million euros.
The hotel has been recently evaluated upon request by GHES lenders at around 150 million euros.
GHES derived turnover worth 123.6 million RON (34.3 million euros) in 2005.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
