In the spring of this year, Estonian investors of the SkyMall shopping and entertainment center were forced to initiate an investment dispute against the State of Ukraine. After that, 6-months period was granted for the pre-trial settlement of the dispute. Since the dispute was not yet settled, in November, Estonian investors will be forced to file a lawsuit against the State of Ukraine. The claim will be $750 million, which is equal to the amount of damages incurred by Arricano.
This was stated during a conversation with political scientist Yuri Romanenko, Anna Chubotina, CEO of Arricano, reports the Business Capital.
In Ukraine, a resonant business with the SkyMall shopping and entertainment center has not been resolved for decades. Back in 2014, the London Arbitration recognized the correctness of Estonian investors, to whom their Ukrainian partner Andriy Adamovsky had to return the shares in exchange for the agreed amount of money. It didn't happen. As a result, the Estonian investors who built this center lost control of it. And now Ukraine can not only get into an international scandal, but will also have to pay $750 million.
As explained by the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to Ukraine Sulev Kannike, the Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas at a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart noted that the Estonian investors and businessmen believe in Ukraine and continue to see great potential in cooperation with it. And the support from Ukrainian state authorities becomes very important to them. At the same time the Estonian party is concerned about violation of Estonian investors’ rights in Ukraine, in particular, the rights of Arricano and Mr. Hillar Teder. Estonia intends to continue contributing to the protection of its businessmen interests in Ukraine.
“We are hopeful of the direct control of legal resolution to the matter on the part of the Ukrainian government. The good experience of each Western investor in Ukraine will become a positive signal on improvement of the investment climate and a guarantee of investments’ security in Ukraine not only for Estonian, but for all European businessmen”– stated the Ambassador of Estonia.
The appeal of Taavi Rõivas was preceded by official letters from Arricano to Taavi Rõivas as well as to the President of Estonia Toomas HendrikIlves with requests to help protect the rights of the company in Ukraine: in September 2014, SEC SkyMall was actually stolen from Arricano through a series of illegal registration activities involving Ukrainian government departments, in particular the State Registration Service of Ukraine (Ukrderzhreestr).
In September-December 2014, Arricano numerously officially appealed to the senior officials of Ukraine, in particular to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and the Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Arricano’s majority shareholder Mr. Hillar Teder is the largest Estonian investor in Ukraine. Since 200, Arricano invested over 400 million US dollars in the construction of six modern shopping centers in Ukraine. In the result of a series of raider attacks on SEC SkyMall made by Ukrainian partners A. Adamovskyi A. and A. Granovskyi in 2012-2014, the company has completely lost the access to operational and financial activity of SEC SkyMall.
The case was especially publicized in 2019, when President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky recalled this resonant conflict during his visit to the United States. After that, it was possible to expect moving forward, but nothing happened.