The Commercial Court in Zagreb has ordered Davor Tomaskovic, the former head of Hrvatski Telekom (HT), and former HT board member Josef Jacob Mathias Thuerriegl and current Supervisory Board member Ivica Misetic to appear before a hearing.
N1 TV reports that this is in connection with a dispute in which the HT shareholder Bosko Bojanovic is suing Deutsche Telekom and HT management over the payment of a reduced dividend. It adds that Bojanovic’s lawsuit alleges that HT bought bonds issued by Deutsche Telekom International Finance (DTIF), registered in the Netherlands, worth up to €125 million.
The plaintiff believes that this was a transaction that reduced the tax base by almost a HRK1 billion (€133.3 million), carried out with the aim of reducing the profit and amount available for the payment of dividends to shareholders, including the Croatian Veterans Fund. Bojanovic estimates the Croatian Veterans’ Fund was damaged by more than HRK60 million.
Bojanovic also states that the disputed investment in DT or DTIF bonds increased Deutsche Telekom’s income as the majority shareholder of HT by almost HRK1 billion, to the detriment of smaller shareholders.
HT has strongly denied the allegations.