Companies affiliated with the German turnaround fund 4K Invest, including Adria Airways’ former owner AA International Aviation Holding, have entered into liquidation following the collapse of the national carrier in late September. According to the “Siol” portal, the closure of these companies will make it difficult for law enforcement agencies to carry out an investigation and obtain necessary documentation. It is believed the fund funnelled money from Adria Airways and inked a number of highly damaging consultancy agreements on behalf of the Slovenian carrier with other companies in its ownership. A criminal investigation is underway to determine 4K Invests’ role in Adria’s bankruptcy.
4K Invest has vanished from the business registries of a number of countries following the demise of Adria Airways. Its website has been shut down and its phone numbers disconnected. It is also believed that several key people, including former Adria Airways CEO, Holger Kowarcsh, have now left 4K invest. The turnaround fund has companies registered in Germany, Malta, the United Kingdom and Luxembourg. The Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure previously noted, “Minister [for Infrastructure] Alenka Bratušek repeatedly warned that the airline’s sale to the German capital fund was a mistake and that the then government of Slovenia should have found a strategic partner within the aviation industry that would have ensured the long-term existence and development of the carrier”. The Slovenian Prime Minister, Marjan Šarec, branded 4K Invest as “crooks”.
Swiss authorities are also looking into 4K Invest for its role in the collapse of Switzerland’s Darwin Airline, which was branded as Adria Airways Switzerland in its final year. A Swiss public prosecutor opened criminal proceedings after the bankruptcy office in Lugano drew his attention to suspected irregularities. The company has been accused of bankruptcy fraud and mismanagement. 4K’s questionable business moves involving Adria included the sale of its brand name, as well as absorbing the STBE company in December 2018, resulting in Stefan Beulertz, who was the head of STBE, becoming Adria's part owner. Mr Beulertz, a lawyer based in Malta who is close to 4K Invest, was implicated in the Paradise Papers, which exposed the rogue offshore finance industry.
cirkus Kolorado
ReplyDeleteI would say that all "smart" theories that Lufthansa is standing behind this 4K are funny now. Some people who present themselves as "serious" analysts of some Tango - Argentino website proved once again to be nothing but fake news spreaders. Have a nice sleep Mr Purger...
DeleteI actually don't get your point. What does 4k collaps and their mismanagement of Adria have to deal with the fact that if they succeeded in adria turn-round Lufthansa would (perhaps) buy it?
DeleteIf... Perhaps would... Seriously?
DeleteIf Croatia is like Germany, perhaps would have a company like Lufthansa. And Scuric would perhaps be CEO :D
I think it is more than obvious that they used Adria simply to extort money.
ReplyDeleteI read a report in the media about the financial mismanagement at Adria by 4K and the tricks they used to show a more positive balance sheet. The things they did were crazy. Selling and buying the brand name, offshore accounts, creating and bankrupting companies etc. Really murky business.
DeleteAnd to think there were some people here defending these idiots.
ReplyDeleteWhen I remember how excited people were when 4K took over...
DeleteBeautiful uniforms. Sad that Adria has left us.
ReplyDeleteEven though it was the most likely outcome I am still shocked by Adria's demise :(
DeleteHope for some revival
DeleteThe political responsibility of selling Adria to these idiots should also be investigated. Who chose 4K Invest over two other bidders and why?
ReplyDeleteStarting with Pocivalsek.
DeleteAnd it's this same Pocivalsek who now wants to set up a new airline.
DeleteThey will not set up a new airline. It was just smoke and mirrors.
DeleteFor who? What was the point?
DeleteAnd of course no one will blame the Civil Aviation Agency. Instead of making sure that the scam ended as fast as possible, they let companies in Slovenia to further accumulate debt towards Adria/4K, which will never be paid.
Delete@9.05 4K invest, Intro Aviation are all the same crappy investors.
DeleteI really never saw a bigger bunch of incompetent people than this 4K. Selling brand name, trying to scam Sukhoi, insisting that everything is ok in the company, publishing winter timetable and announcing new routes literally days before the company went bankrupt…
ReplyDeleteWhat you don't understand is that they obviously were very competent. Unfortunately for Adria.
Delete+1
Deleteanon 09:10 Completely agree. Those people were highly competent in what they were doing, but people (except some professionals) were too naive and incompetent to understand the reality.
DeleteSuch a shame Adria was sold to them. Maybe things would have been different had it not.
ReplyDelete4K was a fraud, a fake and scamming company.
DeleteIt is juat unbelievable that Slovenia sold JP to them without proper research. Anyone involved in the sales deserves jail time.
Definition of con artists.
ReplyDeleteA good warning to the governments of Croatia and Montenegro. Be careful who you choose for your partners.
ReplyDeleteThe Montenegrin government was very close to selling YM to these conmen.
DeleteMontenegro Airlines came dangerously close to being sold to 4K.
DeleteI wonder what would have happened if they did buy MGX. Would Adria's life span had been longer or it would make no difference.
DeleteIf they bought Montenegro we would now have two companies out of business. Air Serbia probably would have concentrated on Montenegrin market as a result while Croatia Airlines would still be saying it's too early to do anything.
DeleteWhat's sad is that none of them will get arrested for their deeds.
ReplyDeleteIt will catch up with them at some point. They destroyed too many companies.
DeleteActually you do not have reason for that. Company was theirs. Only if they funneled money more then their paychecks. I believe they had fat paychecks. No sane person will give them any value and pay above that. Real dodgers are in Slovenia government.
DeleteSo they started shutting down companies, destroying documents and covering their tracks so they can't be persecuted.
ReplyDeleteNot just persecuted but also so they don't have to repay all the money they took.
DeleteTheir motto is "We fix it”, the irony.
ReplyDeleteThey fixed themselves up with some nice funds .
DeleteDid anyone do any screening of this company before they sold Adria??
ReplyDeleteObviously not.
DeleteNope
DeleteThese guys are probably down in the Caribbean enjoying their millions EUR they funneled from JP
ReplyDeleteBingo
DeleteI remember reading an interview a couple of years ago with former Adria office representative in Switzerland. He warned at the time the story would end like this.
ReplyDeleteYou got it all wrong. He said that the purchase of Darwin was instructed by Lufthansa. He never mentioned Adria.
DeleteWell at least the Swiss are more serious and will prosecute these 4K cronies.
ReplyDeleteI doubt about that. They will never be prosecuted because of destroying Darwin.
DeleteWhy? It says in the article that a criminal investigation is under way.
DeleteIt's amazing how 4K in two and a half years bankrupted two airlines. You really have to be a talent to do that.
DeleteIn aviation? Not, just an average manager.
DeleteIt's very easy to run aviation company into the ground.
That is their business. Nothing special. Slovenian government paid them for that.
DeleteNaravno, misija je završena. Zašto bi nastavili sa radom?
ReplyDeletethere is evidence of 4K ties with Slovenian government at the time. That's why any investigation into 4K in Slovenia will never see an epilogue.
ReplyDeleteThere is also evidence that 4K was somehow mixed up with some Iranian company.
Delete@9.23
DeleteI'm coming to the same conclusion. There were 3 offers for Adria it I just can't believe that 4K Invests' offer, which involved the government paying them to take over Adria, was the best offer.
Money laundering 101
ReplyDeleteThis is why you don't sell strategically important companies to unknown investment funds with no experience in aviation business.
ReplyDeleteThey should have sold Adria to Binter Canarias. it was the only airline actually interested in Adria. The rest were scam investment funds, like the on the government chose.
ReplyDeleteBinter was interested but did not bid in the end.
DeleteEverything points to Lufthansa being behind 4K. :D
ReplyDeleteHahahah, perfect answer!
DeleteWell in the end if you look at it. They benefited the most and were the only new airlines to launch flights to LJU.
DeleteHow did they benefit exactly? They had to redirect capacity to operate what is probably a relatively low yielding route for them. Before they had another company do that for them and loose money instead of them.
DeleteAnd at the time when Adria was operating LH could not fly to LJU?
DeleteYeah, right.
LH was far, very far from this circus.
DeleteThey did not pay millions to save it like they did Austrian and Brussels and Swiss.You are in EU where some people have political and economical weight others not.
It all looks very dodgy!
ReplyDeleteHow many companies or affiliated companies does 4k have?
ReplyDeleteAround 20
DeleteJeez
DeleteThe 4K octopus
ReplyDeletehttps://i.imgur.com/3b4gMkl.png
The path of corruption.
DeleteSad.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know some of their other acquisitions?
ReplyDeleteThe super-high and morally superior EU standards on display.
ReplyDeleteYou can't route out these sort of things. It happens all around the world.
DeleteYikes. These are full blown criminals
ReplyDeleteThis finally puts in the perspective the privatisation of Adria Airways who was another fail of Slovenian politics.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't seem the public cares.
DeleteFantastic result of a privatization process. Congratulations to all sides involved.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know where the young CEO is now? He was so ambitious, remember the JP winter expansion? lol
He is back in Tallinn. A managing partner of this company
Deletehttps://naadvisory.com/
Funny how there is no Adria in his work experience.
Deletehttps://naadvisory.com/consultants/sven-kukemelk/
Obviously not something he is proud of :D Interestingly he was also CEO of Adria Training School, which we have since discovered was also loss making.
Delete4K made a minimum risk investment in Adria and got maximum return!
ReplyDelete4K were just LH’s incompetent henchmen.
ReplyDeleteLH were never behind it other than steering JP through Star Alliance.
DeleteI wouldn't be surprised if 4K Invest opens a new company under another name and then advises the Slovenian government in setting up another national airline
ReplyDeleteHahaha same.
DeleteTraces of 4K are gone just like Adria's money.
ReplyDeleteBad.... Bad 4K, you deserve it for what you have done!....... Hahaha!
ReplyDeleteIt is just unbelievable that Slovenia sold JP to them without proper research. Anyone involved in the sales deserves jail time.
ReplyDeleteAgree. No due diligence done. Shame.
DeleteThis is sad. Shame on you 4K Invest.
ReplyDeleteIf 4K Invest is allowed to buy anything anywhere ever again that company deserves to go bankrupt.
ReplyDeleteFrom the no longer available 4K website. LOL
ReplyDelete4K INVEST has an investment and restructuring team with an impressive track record
Highly successful in-house investment team
High transaction security: more than 150 successfully completed transactions
Experienced in-house restructuring team (no external advisors)
Excellent reputation among various stakeholders (i.e. unions, workers‘ council, credit insurers)
I'm really wondering who were these 150 phantom companies.
DeleteAdria became a farce from the first day 4K took over. There is no one else to blame but the Slovenian government.
ReplyDeleteFact is AA was destined to be bankrupt much before 4K. 4K just extended their life by a couple of years.
DeleteYou don't know that. They cleaned out all of Adria's accounts.
DeleteHad government not sold JP to 4K (and by this justify one final 3m EUR financial injection), Adria would have been bankrupt in 2016 already.
DeleteAll 4K managers should be named by name and surname and shamed for their destruction of Adria.
ReplyDeleteThey should all be investigated by the courts.
DeleteThey won't, they'll get away with it.
Delete4K never had any money. Their only initial expense was 100.000 when they bought Adria. Even those 100.000 they got back trough overpaid executive team. Other "investments" were creative book-keeping and they even mortgaged flight school's airplanes.
ReplyDeletewhat these bafoons from 4K
ReplyDeleteLike someone said this is really a definition of a con company. Crazy.
ReplyDeleteIt was clear from beginning yet we need to endure some "eksperte" i njihovo ponasanje. The problem is that you can not in yours "demokratiji" to call for government resignation.
DeleteNeocolonialism at it’s best :(
ReplyDeleteDa je bilo iskrene volje za istragom prvog dana stečaja bi došla policija, oduzela počitače, zapečatila prostorije i odvela Kowarscha ili Schustera u pritvor kako bi ne uništili dokaze. Jedina nada je švicarska istraga. Oni imaju sposobne sudove.
ReplyDeleteA bratuvšek je također bolje da šuti. Bila tada predsjednica vlade.