Dalekovod Penalized with 3.7 Million Euros

The company Dalekovod has been penalized with a non-final ruling by the Municipal Misdemeanor Court in Zagreb with 3.7 million euros, as announced on the Zagreb Stock Exchange. The announcement states that after Hanfa filed a misdemeanor complaint, the Court ruled that Dalekovod must pay a fine amounting to two percent of the total consolidated revenue it achieved in 2021, the year in which the offense was committed.

However, as there is no information available about what this is regarding, we asked Dalekovod, Hanfa, and the Municipal Misdemeanor Court in Zagreb to explain what it is about.

Hanfa stated that after conducting supervisory activities in January 2022, they initiated misdemeanor proceedings against the issuer (Dalekovod) before the mentioned court ‘for failing to publish privileged information regarding its financial restructuring during 2021, which constitutes an offense under the Capital Market Act’.

– The issuer Dalekovod did not publicly disclose privileged information that it received expressions of interest for participation in its financial restructuring and that it decided to negotiate with one of the bidders who expressed interest in participating in the restructuring in which the largest creditor of the mentioned issuer would also participate – they say at Hanfa.

In Hanfa’s response, as well as in Dalekovod’s, and in the part of the ruling sent to us by the Municipal Misdemeanor Court in Zagreb, there is no mention of which creditor it is, but according to media reports at the time, it can be concluded with great certainty that it is the company Advanced Energy Solutions, whose co-owners were Construction Line (a company registered in Malta owned by Josip Jurčević connected with Pavo Vujnovac) and Končar – Elektroindustrija.

As the ruling states that Dalekovod must pay a fine of two percent of the consolidated revenue from 2021, this means that the company should be fined 3.7 million euros, given that Dalekovod group had revenue of 184.5 million euros in 2021. Hanfa confirmed this, as did Dalekovod, and the Municipal Misdemeanor Court in Zagreb from which we received only part of the ruling as it has not yet been officially sent to the parties.

– We note that Hanfa, as the authorized prosecutor in the mentioned misdemeanor proceedings, has not yet received the written copy of the ruling with justification, which penalizes the issuer Dalekovod non-finally. What we can confirm is that upon completion of the main hearing, the competent first-instance misdemeanor court imposed a fine on the issuer Dalekovod in the amount of 3,703,491.94 euros – they stated from Hanfa.

Dalekovod announced that it will appeal the ruling as they believe it is entirely illegal.

– Namely, Dalekovod did not commit the offense it is charged with because the information regarding which the misdemeanor proceedings were conducted is not privileged information at all. This is also confirmed by recent changes at the level of European legislation. The company will certainly inform the interested public about the decision of the second-instance court – they stated from Dalekovod.