The court ruled on Monday that the registration of amendments to Alita’s by-laws, which opened the way for the company’s ownership change, by the Center of Registers back in 2011 was lawful. The ruling of the court, which turned down a complaint submitted by Alita’s minority shareholder, Cyprus-registered Plass Investments, is final and cannot be appealed.
Alita’s ownership change was completed on October 6, 2011, when Swedbank, which was Alita Group's biggest creditor, took over control of the financially-troubled alcohol producer through the subsidiary FR&R Invest.
FR&R Invest owns 84.4 percent of Alita Group, and Vytautas Junevičius, formerly the largest single shareholder of the company, holds a 14.5-percent stake.
In early October 2011, Plass Investments started a marathon legal battle challenging Alita's rescue and restructuring plans.
Alita Group fell into financial troubles after Serbia's privatization agency filed almost 240-million-litas (EUR 70m) claims against the company over an alleged violation of a deal on the privatization of the Serbian brewery Beogradska Industrija Piva (BIP) by ALT Investicijos, a now-bankrupt company that is related to Alita's shareholders.
Alita owns 94.9 percent of shares in Anykščių Vynas.
Both Alita Group and Anykščių Vynas are quoted on the Secondary List of the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius stock exchange.