Agrokor suppliers criticise crisis management

N1

A meeting of the Agrokor suppliers’ management board was held on Monday evening, where the suppliers discussed the deals the crisis management was implementing with some creditors who were not a part of the term sheet signed on April 10 this year in Zagreb.

“At the start of the meeting, the suppliers condemned yesterday’s statements by the crisis management, which brought forward the incorrect and classified information pertaining to Franck’s business. This in no way contributes to the process of preparation and reaching the settlement,” the press release from the suppliers said.

Fabris Perusko said on a news conference on Sunday that all the Agrokor’s creditors were becoming hostages of the Franck company, which, he said, had turned into one of Agrokor’s biggest financiers. He added that Franck was trying to undermine the crisis management process and sabotage the settlement due to their own particular interests.

Franck is owed some 480 million kuna (€64.8 million) in bonds and cessions issued by Agrokor over the years, Dnevnik.hr reported in March. Agrokor’s total debt amounts to 58 billion kuna (€7.8 billion), with Russia’s Sberbank its single largest creditor with a €1.1 billion claim.

“The suppliers negotiated in good faith with all the representatives of the creditors’ groups, as well as the crisis management and their advisors, and concluded the negotiations on April 10, 2018. When all members of the temporary creditors’ council (including Sberbank), VTB, and Agrokor suppliers signed the term sheet, the final settlement draft was considered to be agreed on,” the suppliers said.

“The suppliers still stand by the negotiated and signed term sheet (signed also by Sberbank), but can not accept the later agreements which substantially change the suppliers’ position, and in which the suppliers were not allowed to participate. Furthermore, we can conclude from the crisis manager Perusko’s announcements that similar dealings will happen again – once more without the knowledge of the suppliers or their representatives in the temporary creditors’ council,” said the press release.

“The suppliers still support the settlement within the framework of the agreed and signed term sheet, signed by Sberbank, and the potential amendments can be accepted only if they are agreed on by the representatives of all the creditors, and not unilaterally by the crisis management,” said the press release.

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