4K companies collapse following Adria bankruptcy


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.




Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    cirkus Kolorado

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I 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...

      Delete
    2. I 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?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous20:50

      If... Perhaps would... Seriously?
      If Croatia is like Germany, perhaps would have a company like Lufthansa. And Scuric would perhaps be CEO :D

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:03

    I think it is more than obvious that they used Adria simply to extort money.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:36

      I 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.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:04

    And to think there were some people here defending these idiots.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:37

      When I remember how excited people were when 4K took over...

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:05

    Beautiful uniforms. Sad that Adria has left us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:30

      Even though it was the most likely outcome I am still shocked by Adria's demise :(

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:33

      Hope for some revival

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:05

    The political responsibility of selling Adria to these idiots should also be investigated. Who chose 4K Invest over two other bidders and why?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:06

      Starting with Pocivalsek.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:21

      And it's this same Pocivalsek who now wants to set up a new airline.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:31

      They will not set up a new airline. It was just smoke and mirrors.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:37

      For who? What was the point?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:53

      And 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
    6. Anonymous11:19

      @9.05 4K invest, Intro Aviation are all the same crappy investors.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:06

    I 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…

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      What you don't understand is that they obviously were very competent. Unfortunately for Adria.

      Delete
    2. JU520 BEGLAX09:18

      +1

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:37

      anon 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.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:09

    Such a shame Adria was sold to them. Maybe things would have been different had it not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:04

      4K was a fraud, a fake and scamming company.

      It is juat unbelievable that Slovenia sold JP to them without proper research. Anyone involved in the sales deserves jail time.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:09

    Definition of con artists.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous09:10

    A good warning to the governments of Croatia and Montenegro. Be careful who you choose for your partners.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:15

      The Montenegrin government was very close to selling YM to these conmen.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:19

      Montenegro Airlines came dangerously close to being sold to 4K.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:24

      I wonder what would have happened if they did buy MGX. Would Adria's life span had been longer or it would make no difference.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:27

      If 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.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:10

    What's sad is that none of them will get arrested for their deeds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:11

      It will catch up with them at some point. They destroyed too many companies.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:15

      Actually 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.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:11

    So they started shutting down companies, destroying documents and covering their tracks so they can't be persecuted.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:53

      Not just persecuted but also so they don't have to repay all the money they took.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:14

    Their motto is "We fix it”, the irony.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:54

      They fixed themselves up with some nice funds .

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:15

    Did anyone do any screening of this company before they sold Adria??

    ReplyDelete
  14. JU520 BEGLAX09:17

    These guys are probably down in the Caribbean enjoying their millions EUR they funneled from JP

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous09:18

    I 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:56

      You got it all wrong. He said that the purchase of Darwin was instructed by Lufthansa. He never mentioned Adria.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous09:20

    Well at least the Swiss are more serious and will prosecute these 4K cronies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:27

      I doubt about that. They will never be prosecuted because of destroying Darwin.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:30

      Why? It says in the article that a criminal investigation is under way.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:27

      It's amazing how 4K in two and a half years bankrupted two airlines. You really have to be a talent to do that.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:37

      In aviation? Not, just an average manager.

      It's very easy to run aviation company into the ground.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:49

      That is their business. Nothing special. Slovenian government paid them for that.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous09:21

    Naravno, misija je završena. Zašto bi nastavili sa radom?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous09:23

    there 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:31

      There is also evidence that 4K was somehow mixed up with some Iranian company.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:33

      @9.23
      I'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.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous09:23

    Money laundering 101

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous09:31

    This is why you don't sell strategically important companies to unknown investment funds with no experience in aviation business.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous09:32

    They 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:19

      Binter was interested but did not bid in the end.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous09:38

    Everything points to Lufthansa being behind 4K. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:38

      Hahahah, perfect answer!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:41

      Well in the end if you look at it. They benefited the most and were the only new airlines to launch flights to LJU.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:50

      How 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.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:56

      And at the time when Adria was operating LH could not fly to LJU?

      Yeah, right.

      LH was far, very far from this circus.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:21


      They 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.

      Delete
  23. Anonymous09:43

    It all looks very dodgy!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous09:44

    How many companies or affiliated companies does 4k have?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous09:48

    The 4K octopus
    https://i.imgur.com/3b4gMkl.png

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:50

      The path of corruption.

      Delete
  26. Anonymous09:52

    Sad.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous09:58

    Anyone know some of their other acquisitions?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous10:00

    The super-high and morally superior EU standards on display.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:38

      You can't route out these sort of things. It happens all around the world.

      Delete
  29. Anonymous10:03

    Yikes. These are full blown criminals

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous10:03

    This finally puts in the perspective the privatisation of Adria Airways who was another fail of Slovenian politics.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:38

      Doesn't seem the public cares.

      Delete
  31. Anonymous10:04

    Fantastic result of a privatization process. Congratulations to all sides involved.

    Anyone know where the young CEO is now? He was so ambitious, remember the JP winter expansion? lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:09

      He is back in Tallinn. A managing partner of this company
      https://naadvisory.com/

      Delete
    2. Nemjee10:35

      Funny how there is no Adria in his work experience.

      https://naadvisory.com/consultants/sven-kukemelk/

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:36

      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.

      Delete
  32. Anonymous10:14

    4K made a minimum risk investment in Adria and got maximum return!

    ReplyDelete
  33. Anonymous10:16

    4K were just LH’s incompetent henchmen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:17

      LH were never behind it other than steering JP through Star Alliance.

      Delete
  34. Anonymous10:31

    I 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

    ReplyDelete
  35. Anonymous10:46

    Traces of 4K are gone just like Adria's money.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Bad.... Bad 4K, you deserve it for what you have done!....... Hahaha!

    ReplyDelete
  37. Anonymous11:11

    It is just unbelievable that Slovenia sold JP to them without proper research. Anyone involved in the sales deserves jail time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:35

      Agree. No due diligence done. Shame.

      Delete
  38. Anonymous11:12

    This is sad. Shame on you 4K Invest.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Anonymous11:13

    If 4K Invest is allowed to buy anything anywhere ever again that company deserves to go bankrupt.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Anonymous11:16

    From the no longer available 4K website. LOL

    4K 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)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:33

      I'm really wondering who were these 150 phantom companies.

      Delete
  41. Anonymous11:24

    Adria became a farce from the first day 4K took over. There is no one else to blame but the Slovenian government.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:31

      Fact is AA was destined to be bankrupt much before 4K. 4K just extended their life by a couple of years.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:44

      You don't know that. They cleaned out all of Adria's accounts.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:36

      Had government not sold JP to 4K (and by this justify one final 3m EUR financial injection), Adria would have been bankrupt in 2016 already.

      Delete
  42. Anonymous11:26

    All 4K managers should be named by name and surname and shamed for their destruction of Adria.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:31

      They should all be investigated by the courts.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:32

      They won't, they'll get away with it.

      Delete
  43. Anonymous11:49

    4K 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.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Anonymous11:49

    what these bafoons from 4K

    ReplyDelete
  45. Anonymous12:37

    Like someone said this is really a definition of a con company. Crazy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:25

      It 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.

      Delete
  46. Neocolonialism at it’s best :(

    ReplyDelete
  47. Da 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.
    A bratuvšek je također bolje da šuti. Bila tada predsjednica vlade.

    ReplyDelete

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