LN’s Croatian Partner Goes Bust

It appears that Adria Entertainment chief Vlado Ivankovic has had four companies collapse around him in the space of three years.

Live Nation stepped in to move Peter Gabriel’s Adria-promoted show at Zagreb Arena Oct. 5 across the border to Serbia’s Belgrade Arena.

Zagreb tickets can be used for the Belgrade show and ticketholders will also “receive a small gift for making the journey.”

Tickets can also be exchanged for a recording of the Belgrade show. The cities are 250 miles apart.

News of Adria’s bankruptcy came when Peter Gabriel’s Real World Productions released a statement saying the show was moved because “our Zagreb concert has gone out of business.”

Live Nation is understood to have lawyers checking into the tangled tax web that Adria has left behind. Ivankovic wasn’t available for comment at press time and local sources say he’s believed to have left the country.

On Sept. 6 his company issued a statement blaming Live Nation for the cancellation and claiming Adria had been embarrassed and surprised.

“We had to learn it from the media, not from the usual business communications,” Adria said.

The company blamed “weaker-than-expected sales,” following reportedly disappointing sales for other shows including Depeche Mode, Roger Waters, Robbie Williams, Iron Maiden, and the musical “We Will Rock You.”

Two weeks ago Pollstar exclusively revealed that Lupa and AM Lupa Promotion, two companies that Ivankovic ran before changing their names to Adria Entertainment, have outstanding tax debts of about $3.4 million.

The name change came about a year before Ivankovic sold 25 percent of the company to LN.

Live Nation European president of concerts John Reid says as a matter of policy the company “does not comment on the tax affairs of its partners or those of partly owned assets.”

At least some of the debt is understood to relate to a U2 show the two Lupa companies promoted in Zagreb in 2009.

Last September, Adria Entertainment also had its bank accounts frozen by the tax man.

Ivankovic continued to run the business through Zabava Koncerti, a new company set up with his wife as the registered owner, but that’s also believed to be under investigation by the tax authority.

At press time it wasn’t possible to find out if LN was aware of the changes being made at Adria before the bankruptcy.