Court Dismisses New Ventures Capital NV’s Claim against Danube Logistics
On 19 October 2021 the Chisinau Central Court issued an injunction to dismiss the claim of New
Ventures Capital NV (“NVC”) against Danube Logistics based on the plead of statute of limitation.
In 2019 New Ventures Capital NV, a company controlled by Rafiq Aliyev (the ultimate beneficiary of
Bemol Retail), submitted a claim to the court requesting the annulment of the sale of Danube Logistics
SRL to the Dutch company Danube Logistics Holding BV eight years after the transaction took place in
2011, although NVC expressly consented to the 2011 transaction.
The 2011 transaction has been already elaborated in depth in Dutch courts, and two instances rejected
the claims of Aliyev as being ungrounded. On 11 September 2018 the Amsterdam Court of Appeal
unambiguously ruled in a final and irrevocable decision that the 2011 transaction was legal and
transparent and that the claims of Aliyev do not have any merits. As a result, cases with similar claims,
which were also filed by Aliyev's companies in Moldovan courts, have been dismissed, while the NVC
claim is an unfounded and belated attempt to circumvent the Dutch court decision.
Danube Logistics requested the dismissal of NVC’s 2019 claim based on the plead of statute of
limitation. The court unequivocally accepted the request in first instance.
Danube Logistics SRL is the general investor and operator of Giurgiulesti International Free Port, the
main sea-river port of the Republic of Moldova. Since 2005 Danube Logistics has developed the Port
into one of the most successful ports on the river Danube facilitating international trade of Moldovan
companies with more than 50 countries each year. Danube Logistics SRL is wholly owned by the Dutch
company Danube Logistics Holding BV. The sole ultimate owner of the Danube Logistics group of
companies is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
