The sister company to Stoli Group, Amber Beverage Group (ABG), has announced that it has had to default on a financial loan, two weeks after putting its Baltic states operations into legal protection.
The development, which was confirmed by the Moskovskaya vodka and Kah tequila owner late last week, consists of a notification by CSC (Sweden) AB, which is the trustee of the holders of notes (meaning, the loanees of funds) to ABG, that it has “issued a notice of the occurrence of an event of default”. While financial details around the sum of the notes were not disclosed, Luxembourg-headquartered ABG said it is in discussions with CSC and the noteholders.
In late January, ABG, which is majority held by Stoli Group owner – and Russian businessman – Yuri Shefler, announced that the Amber Latvijas balzams unit had entered legal protection to allow for business as usual while a “financial restructuring” could be investigated and implemented.
The Stoli Group division has suffered similarly of late, when its namesake US operations, along with its Kentucky Owl American whiskey business, were declared bankrupt, also last month. In both instances, a “sophisticated large-scale cyber attack” in 2024 – linked to the companies’ opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – was partially blamed for having impacted their operations.
Shefler left Russia in around 2002 following disagreement with the country’s authorities over the ownership of the Stolichnaya vodka brand.
