The state-appointed emergency administrator of the indebted food and retail group Agrokor, Fabris Perusko, said on Tuesday that the draft of the settlement deal with company's creditors would be published next week. The deal will consist of a debt-for-equity plan, with creditors with largest claims expected to get largest shares of the company.
Members of the temporary creditors’ council and the emergency manager of Agrokor, Fabris Perusko, held a news conference on Tuesday about the process of reaching a debt settlement.
“We are working on completing the draft of the settlement, which will be published next week,” said Perusko.
The news conference was also attended by Perusko’s deputy, Irena Weber, representative of Agrokor’s suppliers Marica Vidakovic, as well as representatives of the company’s largest creditors, Russia’s VTB bank, and the Knighthead hedge fund.
“The crisis is behind us, stabilising business operations and ensuring the liquidity of the company is what today’s Agrokor is an example of,” Vidakovic said, and added that “We are at the finish line, it ended relatively well considering how it might have turned out, had the systemic crisis not been resolved.”
“I hereby ask everyone who can help finish the process to let us protect our business interests and leave us to do this in peace. Thank you in advance, we will be successful only as much as you help us,” Vidakovic said.
Vidakovic also thanked former Economy Minister Martina Dalic, who was “ready to help suppliers on an almost daily basis, and who tried to lead this process in a positive manner.”
“Politics should have ceased its influence after the law (Lex Agrokor) had been passed,” Vidakovic said.
“The process isn’t helped by the psychosis created in the public. It just works to slow down the entire process. As for the process itself – a huge problem is the challenging of claims. This slows down the process and keeps us from successfully ending it,” Perusko said.
The emergency management of Agrokor released the revised consolidated financial report for 2017 and for Q1 2018 on Monday.
In the first three months of 2018 Agrokor’s food and agriculture divisions continued posting profit, while its retail and wholesale division posted an operational loss. In Q1 2018 the retail and wholesale division – which includes the Konzum, one of the major retail chains in Croatia – posted a 2.87 billion kuna (€388 million) in revenue, with an operating loss of 4.2 million kuna (€568,000).
(€1 = 7.39 kuna)
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