After Lithuania received the approval of the European Commission (EC) in Vilnius National Stadium for amendments to the concession agreement, the real estate company intending to take over the project "Males"leader Arvydas Avulis does not rule out the possibility of reaching an agreement with "Whitecap"The transfer of shares in the project will be successful in the coming weeks."
"If there is enough goodwill from Baltcap, we can reach an agreement within a week or two. If there is no goodwill, it may take a month or even longer. It depends not only on us, but also on the party that currently has the rights to the project," A. Avulis told Elta.
"Up until this point, the BaltCap fund has all the rights. Now we have to reach an agreement with them so that they sell us those shares, and we get all the rights and opportunities to implement the project," the businessman said.
A. Avulis emphasized that in order for the agreement to take place, Baltcap must take full responsibility for the actions of its former partner Šarūnas Stepukonis.
"Talks with Baltcap have taken place more than once, but they are complicated, because Š. Stepukonis was at the helm of the fund. We have reason to believe that he did some things not entirely legally, so our condition for the agreement is only one - we do not want to have anything to do with Š. Stepukonis' actions," said the head of Hanner.
Š. Stepukonis was detained in Vilnius last February. The prosecutor's office announced that he had embezzled about 42 million euros of BaltCap fund funds. Of the total amount, 5 million euros were lost in a gambling company registered in Lithuania, 6 million euros were unsuccessfully invested in a brokerage company registered in Hungary, and the majority - over 31 million euros - was lost in a company located in Estonia.
A. Avulis states that he does not want Hanner to be associated with Š. Stepukonis not only because of reputational risk, but also because of financial risk.
"We don't know where he issued what guarantees, who he promised what to, and we don't want someone to come to us with his signature and demand the return of millions of euros," the businessman argued.
"On the other hand, we clearly state that we agree to return the money to the investors who invested 6 million euros in that project after the construction is completed. (…) We can take some risk, but we believe that BaltCap should take on the majority of that responsibility," added A. Avulis.
Vilnius city mayor Valdas Benkunskas announced on Thursday that Lithuania had received a positive EC conclusion on state aid for the National Stadium project in Vilnius.
"The positive conclusion of the EC is very good news and I want to confirm that we are ready to immediately take over the company and complete this project," summed up the Chairman of the Board of Hanner.
Previously, Vilnius Municipality told Eltai that it had made all the decisions necessary to implement the project, and that after receiving a positive conclusion from the EC, further actions will have to be taken by the stadium concessionaire - he will have to submit the relevant documents so that the agreements on indexation and implementation of additional works come into effect.
The concessionaire of the stadium project is the company "Vilnius Multipurpose Complex", indirectly managed by the BaltCap Infrastructure Fund of the investment company "BaltCap".
The project is currently managed by the Baltcap company, but now, after receiving a positive conclusion from the EC, the concessionaire's shares should be transferred to the new owner - the real estate development company Hanner.
As the mayor of the capital said at the time V. Benkunskas, the actual construction cost of the complex alone increased by 2020 percent from the beginning of 2022 to mid-40.
After redistributing the project risks, the National Stadium project became cheaper for the state from 156 to 155,2 million euros (including VAT).
The whole multifunctional complex consists of National Stadium with a sports museum inside, a sports center with basketball, handball, gymnastics, and boxing halls, three football training fields, an international category athletics stadium with a football field, an athletics warm-up zone with throwing sectors, a cultural center with a library and a kindergarten for 300 children.
Vygantas Tuzas (ELTA)
