Gelabran Real Estate – one of the founding shareholders of Amstor Group – supported the primary shareholder, Smart-Holding, in its intention to stabilize the operations of Amstor hypermarkets all over Ukraine.
The company’s announcement published by Ukrainian News states: ‘We condemn the actions of Amstor’s minority shareholder Vladimir Vagorovskiy and the company’s ex-management represented by Alexandr Vagorovskiy who caused the supermarkets to close down and, putting their personal gain above the interests of Amstor’s team, made thousands of the retail chain’s employees hostages of the circumstance.’
Gelabran Real Estate calls on all stakeholders to resume the stores’ operations immediately and to resolve all disputes by negotiations.
As we have previously reported, on 31 December armed men attempted to block a number of Amstor retail centres in Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk and Mariupol. Police squads arrived to the sites and helped resume normal operation of the stores; however, not for long. At the moment, all supermarkets of Amstor chain remain closed.
Smart-Holding, the primary shareholder of Amstor, believes that the armed men acted on the orders of the company’s minority shareholder and ex-manager Vladimir Vagorovskiy. Smart-Holding explains that Mr. Vagorovskiy’s actions came as a result of the company’s audit that had revealed his attempts to take over the company and conceal massive embezzlements.
Smart-Holding, as the retailer’s primary shareholder, addressed the law-enforcement authorities and urged all the employees to ensure uninterrupted operations of all Amstor Group’s subsidiaries. The company’s ex-manager continues intimidating the stores’ managers forcing them to stay away from work and to prevent collection of the cash proceeds.
Former managers of Amstor Group Vladimir Vagorovskiy and Alexandr Vagorovskiy are currently outside of Ukraine. They checked in at Cheval Blank hotel in Courchevel, the elite Alpine ski resort. Ukrainian law-enforcement authorities believe that both men left Ukraine after the company’s primary shareholder filed a police report against Mr. Vagorovskiy.
Gelabran Real Estate is the minority shareholder of Amstor Group.
To read the original news article on the website of Ukrainian News, please follow the link