Фото: Belamarket Duty Free
Lithuanian broadcaster LRT has published an investigation into the ties between Lithuanian businessman Artur Grants, who holds Belarusian and Armenian citizenship, and the property management department of Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
In Lithuania, Grants owns one of Vilnius’ most expensive restaurants, HeJi, and the luxury hotel Esperanza Resort in Trakai. But he also has another business — the Lithuanian company Mello Trading. Together with Dipmarket, a company from Lukashenka’s property management system, it owns the Belamarket Duty Free chain. Mello Trading owns 50.1% of the chain, while the remainder belongs to Dipmarket. The chain has 30 stores.
Officially, Mello Trading says it does not operate in Belarus.
“We inform you that we do not and have not carried out any economic or commercial activity in the Republic of Belarus. We only own financial assets in this jurisdiction, but due to the current restrictions and/or legal circumstances, we have no possibility of realising them”, the company said in a statement.
At the same time, as LRT’s partner, the Belarusian investigative outlet “Bureau”, found, last year the duty free chain generated €17 million in revenue and €2 million in profit.
Mello Trading said it does not receive dividends from the Belarusian asset either directly or through third countries, including the United Arab Emirates.
“The payment of dividends during this period was effectively impossible because of the financial restrictions currently in force in Belarus”, the company said.
According to Lithuanian registries, the company did in fact receive dividends from Belarus in 2022 amounting to around €200,000. Earlier, in 2020 and 2018, dividends from Belarus exceeded €1.5 million.
It should be noted that Belarus has restrictions on dividend payments to investors from so-called unfriendly countries, which include Lithuania. In such cases, dividend payments are only possible with the permission of the authorities.