June the 18th, 2022 - The Adris Group has announced its massive 3.2 billion kuna investment plans which cover everything from digitialisation to some well known hotels in both Zagreb and Split.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, at last week's general meeting, the Adris Group voted on a proposal for the payment of dividends, which are somewhat more generous than they were last year. During the first week of July, shareholders will receive a payment of 15.50 kuna per share (compared to last year's 12.5 kuna per share and no dividends to speak of whatsoever the year before that), which means that around 254 million kuna will be directed to dividends from accumulated retained earnings from previous years.

In his concluding comment on the business results of the Adris Group and its main components (tourism, insurance and healthy food), CEO Marko Remenar said that the company is operationally and financially ready to take further business steps and engage in the continuation of "active dividend policy".

An ambitious set of plans

In addition to a "well-diversified portfolio of jobs", Remenar also underlined the high investment potential and the ambitious list of the company's prepared investments. For the period until 2024 (including this year), their investment plans are worth an enormous 3.2 billion kuna, and four-fifths of those investments, or about 2.5 billion kuna, relate to the tourism part of the portfolio, which in the case of the Adris Group primarily means the development of the luxury segment tourism.

This year and over the next two years, on average, more than 800 million kuna will be invested in this sector alone, and as the Adris Group's spokesman Predrag Grubic noted, most of that refers to the renovation of some Zagreb hotels (along with Panorama, which is already in the process of renovation, the other one will be Westin) as well as Hotel Marjan in Split, and they'll also continue to invest in camps and resorts. The three-year projections for the insurance sector envisage investments worth 410 million kuna, and in that sense, Croatia osiguranje's focus is being placed primarily on investments in digitalisation.

IT in general accounts for a significant share of the Adris Group's investments, and their current plan to invest around half a billion kuna in business digitalisation by 2025 speaks in favour of this. In terms of the sectors themselves, the three-year plan includes 230 million kuna of investments in the business area of ​​healthy food, ie Cromaris. In the aforementioned investment cycle of 3.2 billion kuna, "possible acquisitions aren't included", Grubic explained.

According to the parliamentary presentation of the Adris Group's results and business activities, over the past two years, despite the uncertainties caused by the coronavirus pandemic, almost 840 million kuna of capital investments were made. Compared to the pre-crisis year of 2019, investment activities continued at a solid pace (450 million in 2020 and 390 million last year), and in the coming period it should be further accelerated. Given that the company is still actually indebted in a low sense, the investment potential is unquestionable. Thanks to a strong recovery in operating profit, which again exceeded an impressive 1 billion kuna last year, the Adris Group entered this year with a debt ratio (net debt to EBITDA) of a mere 0.8.

The management boards of Adris' companies gave their shareholders a brief overview of the main features of how business went during the first four months of this year, and the presented data indicates further improvements in terms of results. As such, Croatia osiguranje (insurance) recorded slightly faster sales growth compared to 5.6 percent growth in the total market, which further strengthened its share here on the domestic market. In the first four months of 2022, the gross written premium of CO was higher by seven percent than it was last year, while net profit was higher by nine percent. In the tourism segment, the first third of this year was marked by strong growth in both sales revenues and physical indicators.

Compared to 82 million kuna in sales revenue back during the first four months of last year, by the end of April this year, they reached a huge 188 million kuna, with the number of occupied units being 2.5 times higher. The state of bookings and reservations at the beginning of June has significantly improved, with Istrian facilities, but also those down in Dubrovnik, exceeding the figures from the pre-pandemic, record year of 2019. 

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October the 31st, 2021 - The well known Adris Group is set to invest a large sum into the renovation of several Zagreb hotels, as well as into the famous Hotel Marjan down in the City of Split.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, the Adris Group's net profit reached a massive 605 million kuna in the first nine months of this year, compared to a considerably lower figure of 141 million kuna last year, and total revenues rose to 4.51 billion kuna (marking a significant increase of 23 percent), they announced from Adris.

At the same time, the income from the sale of goods and services increased by a quarter, reaching a staggering 4.18 billion kuna. Consolidated profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also stands at 1.065 billion kuna, three percent below the pre-crisis levels of 2019. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic continues to leave its traces on the results of the tourism business, Maistra, although a recovery was recorded in the main part of this year's main tourist season which is promising.

The company recorded 1.2 billion kuna in revenue from sales of goods and services, 79 percent of the figure recorded from back in 2019. EBITDA stood at 602 million kuna, reaching 85 percent of what was realised before the global pandemic struck, as well as net profit 360 million kuna in total. The Istrian part of the tourism business accounted for 86 percent of sales realised back in 2019, Zagreb hotels reached 36 percent of the same, and those down in Dubrovnik reached 44 percent of 2019's results.

Adris has also recently announced 200 million kuna in investments this year, with the continuation of preparations for the renovation projects of Zagreb hotels and the Marjan Hotel down on the coast in Split.

Croatia osiguranje's net profit amounted to 320 million kuna, 9 percent more on an annual basis, with 2.27 billion kuna of total gross premiums written in Croatia (a marked increase of 5 percent).

Cromaris' EBITDA profit also jumped up by more than a quarter, reaching 52 million kuna, while the net result was 12.3 million kuna.

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ZAGREB, 17 March, 2021 - Representatives of the PPDIV agriculture union on Wednesday met with Rovinj Mayor Marko Paliaga, saying afterwards that the story of the future of the Rovinj Tobacco Factory (TDR) "ended well and British American Tobacco (BAT) stays in Croatia."

Paliaga thanked the unionists for fighting for TDR workers, the City of Rovinj said in a press release.

The Kanfanar-based TDR is owned by British American Tobacco.

The unionists thanked the mayor for the cooperation and support in negotiations with BAT on keeping the plant in Kanfanar, following announcements last year that it might be shut down.

The workers need not fear for their future any longer because TDR is staying in Kanfanar, the press release said.

PPDIV president Denis Paradiš said TDR's staying in Croatia was important for Rovinj, Istria County as well as for the Slavonia region and tobacco growers. "It's important for all of Croatia."

BAT took over TDR from Adris Group in September 2015 for €505 million. Under the contract, BAT was to keep production in Kanfanar for at least five years.

Last year media reported that BAT was considering to leave Croatia due to deteriorated business conditions. In December, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said the government's negotiations with BAT were going well and that he would do everything for BAT to keep production in Istria.

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September 17, 2020 - Hotel Marjan in Split, which has been out of function since Zeljko Kerum took over in 2006 and was bought by Rovinj's Adris Group at the end of last year, will be completely demolished.

T.portal writes that the investors have hired 3LHD studio from Zagreb and the famous Italian architect and designer Pier Lissoni to lead the new hotel project, and they are currently in the process of obtaining a location permit.

After its reconstruction, the former Split tourist pearl and one of the recognizable city symbols will be equally as tall as the building today, but with one floor less due to the desired higher floor height. According to unofficial announcements, in this renovation, the hotel will be reduced by about 6.5 thousand square meters and for the most part, aim to be closer to the original form from the 1960s, i.e., an attempt will be made to neutralize the consequences of the never completed renovation fifteen years ago, when the investor was Zeljko Kerum and designer Jerko Rosin.

Among other things, two large hotel annexes, which are called apartments, will be removed, and there will no longer be the eyesore that is the double glass facade. A large inner courtyard, or atrium, will be formed, and the facade itself will follow the ideas during the original design of the West Coast, which includes even the color of the stone.

Adris Group said only briefly that in cooperation with the City of Split and the relevant institutions, they are preparing the necessary documentation for the renovation of Hotel Marjan. After the renovation is completed, it will be in the group of their luxury hotels (Grand Park Hotel Rovinj, Lone, Hilton and others). Still, they did not want to reveal the planned amount of investment and completion deadlines.

As it was unofficially found out, the original plan was to complete the documentation by the end of this year and start work next year, in which most of the planned two billion kuna of the company's investment in the tourism sector would be spent. As the decision was made at the group level to postpone it for a year due to the corona crisis, it is realistic that Adris Group will take its first major step into the Dalmatian market in 2022.

"The fact is that the coronavirus pandemic affected the course of our investments, but we will be able to talk about the deadlines and details of the project itself, which 3LHD and the famous Piero Lissoni are working on, when the project is completed," the Adris Group confirmed.

Leading Split conservator Rade Buzancic said that talks had been held with investors and designers and that his service was so far satisfied with what they had seen and heard.

"These are top experts who have set themselves the task of making a serious redesign, but almost reminiscent of the original project. They want to get closer to the original of the Marjan hotel and focus on quality instead of quantity, and that is a novelty in behavior in our area," Buzancic said.

Hotel Marjan itself is not individually protected as a cultural asset. Still, it has become part of the recognizable image of the city, especially from the sea, and an actor of a kind of subtle dialogue with Diocletian's Palace - both in area and height. According to the project of Lovro Perkovic, the former industrial zone with quarries and cement plants on the West Coast has been 'sanitized', and as Buzancic explains, in a successful modern style.

"The recent intervention was not particularly successful, and the construction of the double façade even increased the size of the tower and lost the cantilever, which gave the impression that the tower was floating in the air. Investors are very cooperative and are willing to restore most of the delicate image lost in the reconstruction fifteen years ago, and even balconies with bars. The project is currently going in the right direction," confirms the leading Split conservator.

Hotel Marjan, the former pride of Split tourism, was bought by Zeljko Kerum fifteen years ago for 170 million kuna, paying three times more than the requested starting price. He promised and announced a renovation, even signing a contract with the Hilton chain, but it turned out that this investment ran his entire business empire to the ground. The purchase was guaranteed by his retail chain Kerum d.o.o., which the banks blocked, and he announced lawsuits against them.

At the end of 2017, Adria Resorts from the Adris Group bought receivables secured by mortgages over Hotel Marjan from the Austrian Heta Asset Resolution Group. They previously did the same with receivables from hotel annexes and claims of 72 former hotel employees. Therefore, at the end of last year, Marjan was bought for three-quarters of the estimated value, HRK 324 million, by an electronic auction.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 6th of April, 2020, in addition to the donation of three million kuna by the Adris Foundation for the procurement of respirators for hospitals in Rijeka and Pula, the Adris Group's administration has decided to donate two million kuna for the restoration of cultural monuments damaged in the recent earthquake in Zagreb.

In order to overcome the gravity of the situation caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Adris Group's management, with the consent of its supervisory board, has made a number of decisions that will affect the operations of their affiliates, primarily their liquidity and profitability, and the long-term sustainability of the company in these unprecedented new circumstances.

Regardless of the current circumstances here in Croatia and across the world as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hold the economy in its firm grip, the Adris Group's management board decided that there would be no layoffs within that company. The Afris Group will realise already contracted and ongoing investments, and they will continue to prepare for planned projects.

Aware of the circumstances and the unknown situation we're all in when it comes to the potential duration of the coronavirus crisis - and despite the exceptionally good business results it achieved in 2019,  the company's management have agreed to cut their salaries by 30 percent over the next three + three months.

It has been recalled that, according to unaudited consolidated reports for the fourth quarter of 2019, the Adris Group generated a total revenue of 6.1 billion kuna in 2019, marking an increase of five percent. Revenue from the sale of goods and services amounted to a massive 5.4 billion kuna and is seven percent higher than it was back in 2018. Revenues from foreign markets increased by five percent to 1.59 billion kuna. Net profit amounted to 506 million kuna, marking an increase of 13.4 percent. Net profit after minority interests amounted to an impressive 402 million kuna and is 31 percent higher than it was last year.

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As Glas Istre/Dubravko Grakalic writes on the 1st of November, 2019, Adris Group's operating results in the first three quarters of this year show a significant increase in revenues and great business development. In the first nine months of this year, Adris Group's total revenues amounted to a massive 4.92 billion kuna, which is 4 percent more than in the same period last year. Net profit amounts to 663 million kuna, which is 89 million kuna, or 12 percent less than last year.

Such business is the result of strong investment and acquisition activities in 2018 and 2019 with the aim of increasing the group's profitability and long-term sustainability.

In terms of business segments, Croatia Osiguranje is the leading company in the Croatian insurance market with a total share of 27.9 percent. The gross written premium, which includes foreign subsidiaries, stands at 2.7 billion kuna, up from last year's level.

Cromaris published sales of 6,761 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up eight percent. The export markets recorded a nine percent increase in volume.

The tourist section of the Adris Group, Maistra, posted a 1 percent increase in the sale of accommodation units, with an increase in the average price of overnight stays of 6 percent, which led to a 7 percent increase in operating income. Net profit was also up by 4 percent

The current booking confirms the positive trends of revenue growth so far. Adris Group's last major acquisition, HUP-Zagreb, d.d., generated one percent higher operating revenue.

Currently, the strategic plan for the tourist part of the group for the period until 2024 is worth almost four billion kuna. The plan includes construction of new and the repositioning of existing facilities in all tourist destinations in Croatia in which Adris Group operates - Rovinj, Vrsar, Dubrovnik and Zagreb.

A formal completion of the process related to the Marjan Hotel in Split is also expected, which will allow Adris Group to enter this growing Croatian tourist destination.

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Good news for one Istrian tourist gem, as well as for those looking for employment.

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For the second time, Croatia’s Adris Group has failed in its bid to increase the ownership share in the Slovenian insurance company Sava Re.

Another successful six-month period for the group.