The unknown court case of the winery Nico Lazaridi with the shareholders of K. Michalos IKE

Of George Lampiris

A case related to the field of wine in Greece and in which well-known businessmen are involved, including the recently deceased and former president of EVEA, Konstantinos Michalos and his partners, George and Christos Bikas, has recently been brought under crisis of Greek justice.

The case began to unfold in 2018 and after, when entrepreneurs set up the company for marketing and distribution of wines and spirits, Vinalia IKE.

According to an official document that we have at our disposal, one of the main suppliers of Vinalia, the company Nikos Lazaridis OBGE, which is active in the production of wines with the label, Nico Lazaridi, Vinalia IKE was judged by the Multi-Member Court of First Instance Athens that it was the company to which “the pre-existing company Vinalia SA transferred all the goods at its disposal and which it had not paid, enjoying both the profit of sales and the value of the products”.

“Transfer of the company to Vinalia IKE in order to cancel the satisfaction of claims”

Nikos Lazaridis Winery had appealed to the court, filing a lawsuit against Vinalia SA. but also against Vinalia IKE. The Multi-Member Court of First Instance of Athens, came in turn with the decision 873/2022 to accept the lawsuit of Nikos Lazaridis.

According to the decision, cited by Nikos Lazaridis, “VINALIA SA, in the interests of Ilias Konstantopoulos, who currently holds the position of General Manager at SEMELI AOAEE, due to financial problems it faced, transferred its business to second defendant VINALIA IKE, interests of the companies KONSTANTINOS MICHALOS AND SIA IKE, in which the heirs of Konstantinos Michalos, BIKAS SA and KONSTANTOPOULOS KEFI IKE now participate, in order to satisfy the claimant

An amount of 1.05 million euros was awarded to Nikos Lazaridis

The decision awarded the total amount of 1,055,508.73 euros to Nikos Lazaridis OBGE – according to what the winery reports – and obliged the two defendant companies, VINALIA SA and VINALIA IKE, to pay this amount.

In a communication that Capital.gr had with the managing director of the winery Nikos Lazaridis OBGE, Federiko Lazaridis, states that: “at the moment Vinalia IKE has not filed any appeal against the first instance decision.

We have started to collect debts, a fact that is not due to the acceptance of the decision by Mr. Bika but exclusively to the fact that the lawsuits were filed by us, resulting in the confiscation of amounts coming from accounts of Vinalia IKE in order to meet the debts to us “.

The equity balances in the “newer” Vinalia IKE

It is noted that Michalos Konstantinos and SIA IKE participated in Vinalia IKE during its establishment, with a percentage of 49.5%, but also the head of Vinalia, Elias Konstantopoulos, through the company Konstantopoulos KEFI IKE and Konstantinos Michalos personally with a percentage of 1% .

It is noted that the deceased businessman also participated in the company Michalos Konstantinos and SIA IKE in the past, while at present Mr. Christos and George Bikas appear as sole managers.

The specific share balances changed in January 2021, when Konstantinos Michalos and SIA paid an amount of 1.29 million, now acquiring a 96.25% stake in Vinalia IKE, K. Michalos as a natural person retained a 0.07% stake and Konstantopoulos KEFI IKE paid an amount of 49,500 euros, maintaining only 3.68% in the share capital. Christos Bikas appears as the sole manager of Vinalia IKE.

Various activities in the field of food and beverages

The website, thefoodballer.gr, appears as the electronic page of commercial activity of Konstantinos Michalos and SIA IKE on the official page of GEMI.

The site displays a range of activities ranging from meat marketing, meat slaughtering, Asian food marketing, banana ripening and foreign fruit, to professional bakery products and a number of other business activities in the field. of food and beverages including Vinalia.

It should be noted that the pre-existing company Vinalia SA which was founded by Elias Konstantopoulos and according to what he claims derives from the court decision, the winery Nikos Lazaridis, transferred its data to the newer Vinalia IKE of Michalos and Bika, in the last published fiscal year 2018 had a turnover of 1.5 million euros with losses after taxes of 51 thousand euros from 5.9 million euros turnover and losses after taxes of 137.8 thousand euros in 2017.

Respectively, the newest company Vinalia IKE of Michalos and Bika in 2020 had a turnover of 2.45 million euros in 2020 from 3.5 million euros in 2019 and net losses of 472.7 thousand euros from 534.18 thousand euros in 2019.

The Capital.gr In the context of the report, he sought to contact Giorgos Bikas, so that he also has the opinion of the other side, however, such a thing has not been possible so far.