The government’s representatives refused to make any comments to BNS saying that they had not yet seen the text of the decision.
The court established that the team of Alita’s executives and the company Invinus, which had been established by them for the purposes of Alita’s privatization, were improper buyers of the alcoholic beverage producer since their bid of more than 57 million litas (EUR 16.5m) differed from the highest bid, placed by Italian businessman Luigiterzo Bosca, by more than 15 percent.
The court ruled that the government’s decision approving a draft agreement on Alita’s privatization was basically a follow-up to the 2003 decision, which was deemed unconstitutional back in 2007.
“That government’s decision basically is not a new agreement; it is actually a follow-up to the initial agreement,” Romualdas Kestutis Urbaitis, the court’s chairman, said.
The Constitutional Court ruled in May 2007 that the government’s decision of December 2003 authorizing the sale of Alita ran against the country’s main law.
Observers say that, as a follow-up to this decision by the Constitutional Court, the matters pertaining to Alita’s privatization could be dealt with by other authorities.
