Fernadero drops LASCO claim

A company that claimed its bid for the recently privatized Latvian Shipping Company was unfairly excluded has dropped its legal challenge against the sale.

Fernadero Ltd. said it would no longer contest the auction in which the oil terminal Ventspils Nafta acquired the bulk of the shipping company's shares at an auction earlier this year.

"We withdraw from this process deeply regretting that our bid was not accepted," said Fernadero director Richard Reinert, adding that the company is looking to buy another shipping company.

Reinert said he would consider an offer from Ventspils Nafta to buy into LASCO, but so far no offer has been made.

Fernadero submitted a bid for LASCO an hour too late, but said an investment bank through which it worked was responsible for the delay.

The company filed a complaint at Riga's Vidzeme District Court against the decision of the Latvian Privatization Agency to approve the auction results and also filed a claim with a Riga regional court asking the purchase agreement between the privatization agency and Ventspils Nafta to be declared void.

The court rejected the claim, saying privatization disputes must be taken to the international court of arbitration.

Ventspils Nafta meanwhile has filed a claim with a regional court demanding 46,000 lats (78,000 euros) in damages from the privatization agency and Fernadero to compensate loss incurred by the company due to the auction dispute.

Ventspils Nafta spokeswoman Gundega Varpa said the oil terminal suffered a real loss and did not tie its own claim with that withdrawn by Fernader.