Two years ago, Ivica Todorić signed Lex Agrokor, handing over the control of his gigantic company to the control of the state in an attempt to save it from collapsing. Since then, the largest restructuring in this part of Europe has taken place, a tumultuous phase we are now coming to the end of.

As Agrokor and all of its tremendous woes finally enter the realms of Croatia's business history, Fortenova begins its operations on a clean(er) slate.

As Jadranka Dozan/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 1st of April, 2019, as of today, which was already publicly announced by the former Agrokor as the date of the beginning of the settlement, Fortenova Group, the company's brand new name, begins its work. Yesterday, all Konzums were closed for the day, and a new chapter has now begun.

From the technical-operational aspect, the most visible test of the success of the enormous amount of preparatory actions for this "business migration" will be shown today in Konzum. From a normative aspect, all of the necessary enforcement documents were completed late last week. Fabris Peruško, the company's government appointed extraordinary commissioner and the temporary creditor's council agreed their final texts on Thursday. On Friday, just one day later, the Commercial Court in Zagreb issued a statement, and Judge Nevenka Siladi Rstić then issued a decision and approved the aforementioned documents.

Two days before, the conclusion was published explicitly specified the role(s) of the temporary creditor's council and the extraordinary commissioner in the further IU procedure, which could take a further three years. There was obviously a disagreement when it came to the terms of the need for harmonisation of the final acts between Fabris Peruško and the temporary creditor's council, so the session of the creditor's council lasted for two days.

Until the end of the procedure, the creditor's council now has the right and the duty (along with the court) to monitor how business is being done, supervise the execution of the settlement, and Peruško's work, including overseeing payment statements, checking account turnovers, and approving decisions in the settlement's further implementation.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more.

Click here for the original article by Jadranka Dozan for Poslovni Dnevnik

ZAGREB, March 25, 2019 - The Zagreb County Prosecutor's Office on Monday officially confirmed media reports that it has launched yet another, third investigation in the case of the Agrokor conglomerate which covers the company's former owner, Ivica Todorić, the former executive vice president for business and development, Piruška Canjuga, and the former director for facility investments, Ante Huljev.

The prosecutor's office said in a press release that the three are charged with abuse of office in doing business whereby they defrauded Agrokor and illegally gained an amount of 1,250,000 euros. It added that the offences were committed in November and December 2013 in Zagreb and in Cham, Switzerland.

The press release added that the prosecutor's office had launched an investigation against a 48-year old Austrian citizen on suspicion of abuse of trust in business operations in connection with the same offences, however, the decision on that investigation had not become final yet.

The Jutarnji List daily on Monday reported that the investigation is related to events in Agrokor in 2013 and sale-leaseback agreements between Agrokor and the US-based W. P. Carey real estate fund, with Agrokor selling property, warehouses, supermarkets and hypermarkets and then re-leasing them.

"In short, Agrokor sold its real estate to W. P. Carey and received tens of millions of euro of fresh capital while at the same time it took out long-term leases for the same properties. It is suspected that by doing so Agrokor in fact bypassed classic borrowing from commercial banks and was also able to state a lower level of indebtedness in its financial statements. The prosecution, however, is not incriminating the "sale-leaseback" agreements as such but rather the "leakage" of some of the money obtained in that process," the daily reported.

In late 2013, in a fifth transaction of this nature, Agrokor sold retail outlets to W. P. Carey in the amount of about 67 million euro and then immediately leased the same properties. On that occasion, Agrokor paid a company in Switzerland a hefty amount of 1.25 million euro to mediate and provide consultancy services in that deal.

An inspection of those transactions revealed that Ivica Todorić ordered that payment to the Swiss company. With alleged involvement of Piruška Canjuga, the order was processed by Ante Huljev, the Jutarnji List wrote, adding that the money was actually paid to an off-shore company in Switzerland, which was founded in such a way to hide the identity of the account's owner.

More news on Agrokor can be found in the Business section.

As tportal writes on the 24th of March, 2019, in just a few day's time, it will have been a full two years since the adoption of Lex Agrokor. Four and a half months since his extradition to Croatia after a year of fighting his corner in London, there are still no actual indictments against Ivica Todorić and his managers in the former Agrokor system. After having announced his desire to enter into politics, followed by a brief yet rather deafening silence, N1's guest was no less than the former owner of Agrokor, Ivica Todorić himself.

Asked to comment on the notion that he symbolised absolute power two years ago, built and owned the most successful company in the Balkans, and today he's a destroyed businessman awaiting his indictment, the ever smiling Ivica Todorić said he was in exactly the same form and acts very much in the same way as he did two, three, or four years ago.

''I'm doing more than I've been doing for the past forty years and I'm going to be honest, maybe I'm even happier today, a happier man than I used to be,'' a grinning Ivica Todorić told N1, saying that he was fighting for another thing now, and that is a fight against Croatia's corrupt system. He said that he was far from destroyed, quite the contrary.

For the last two years, the state has been preparing a trial against you, claiming that you committed crimes within Agrokor...

''I don't bother having anything to do with that, some accusations against me, what they're saying, and what they've tried to imply, it will be one serious legal document of this shameful Croatian state ... After thirty years, I left my company. In the last thirty years, everything remained within the company, all my mails, SMS's, accounts, all my transactions, all my contracts, everything remained within the company! Why not show us just one receipt?! What they did in Agrokor in a year, what crimes they were committing...'' questions Agrokor's former top dog.

Although DORH argues that the value of the company fell due to debts, Ivica Todorić claims that he has full evidence of the value of the company.

''What they made out of Agrokor today, I can't get 2.5 billion for the whole group. What destruction they've caused. When you talk about DORH and the process against me... Unbelievable. They claim I took some money. They know where the money went, where the accounts are. I took about 470 million euros in personal debt and gave it all to Agrokor. Agrokor was indebted to me, not me to Agrokor! And sure, it's like I've taken something...'' said Agrokor's ex boss.

He also said that Božo Petrov lured him to a meeting and he arrived like something out of the mafia in the night. "That was a weird meeting, I did't understand anything," Ivica Todorić said.

When asked if he was looking for money from the Croatian Government for Agrokor, he said: ''What do you mean? What money? Agrokor wasn't in trouble. It was only important for them that I came to be able to say that I came, so they could say that I was looking for something,''

He also said that none of the suppliers who worked with Agrokor had suffered any damage, but that was why he acted in the manner he did towards CNB/HNB's governer Boris Vujčić, about whom he had few nice words to say.

"He absolutely ruined me, he'd talked to some vulturous funds, gave them preferential information. You'll see what will still be done, what will be found out. That Vujčić has dragged Croatia to the bottom of the bottom. He put me, Agrokor, a thousand of our suppliers in position in which we had to pay more interest,'' said Ivica Todorić.

He also commented on the possible return of Antonio Alvarez III (Yes, that's really his name), who was among the very first to appear on Agrokor's then crumbling stage just after the passing of Lex Agrokor, allowing the government to intervene in the enfeebled company's affairs.

"This about them calling Mr. Alvarez and what they're doing, you can see that they're just lost, they don't know what they're doing, they don't know where they're going," he remarked.

Ivica Todorić believes that the Fortenova Group, which will soon be the ''new'' Agrokor, won't actually exist for years, nor will it be anything compared with Agrokor's entire business. He also believes that DORH is working to protect Andrej Plenković.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle, business and politics pages for more info on Ivica Todorić's entry onto the Croatian political scene and much more.

Daniel Boehi, Miodrag Borojević, Paul Foley, Kelly Griffith, Maxim Poletajev, Jullian Michael Simmons, Sergey Volk and Fabris Peruško are a list of names that will enter the ''new'' Agrokor, or Fortenova's management.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 15th of March, 2019, Sberbank's Maksim Poletajev will be the head of Fortenova's board of directors, as was decided upon by the concern's owners during meeting in London, Večernji list writes.

At the moment, this information remains unofficial and should be confirmed at the end of March, when new functions will be recorded in the Court Registry of companies. Namely, on the first day of April, the Fortenova Group, formerly Agrokor, will be chaired by a board of nine directors and an executive board consisting of three members. Daniel Boehi, Miodrag Borojević, Paul Foley, Kelly Griffith, Maxim Poletaev, Jullian Michael Simmons, Sergey Volk and Fabris Peruško, Agrokor's current extraordinary administrator, are already known.

Maxim Poletajev of Russia's Sberbank, will be at the helm of this body which will make all strategic decisions on the involved companies.

This body decides on the selling and acquiring part of the business, appointments, and other major contracts. Along with Poletajev as a representative of Sberbank, the largest shareholder, which has a 39.2 percent stake in the new ownership structure, Sergey Volk will also enter the body, who as a member of the temporary creditors' council has been present within Agrokor since the very beginning of the extraordinary administration process. Both bankers are well acquainted with the opportunities within Agrokor, over the past two years they have become well acquainted with Agrokor's suppliers and most of the owners of major Croatian companies.

In an interview with Večernji list, Poletajev announced that the company, which will continue to operate under Fortenova's name, will boast some powerful management names.

For now, all operating company directors have retained their positions in mirror companies, and some very powerful names are set to enter the board of directors. Miodrag Borojević is certainly one of them. He currently runs the O'KEY Group, one of the leading retail chains in Russia, and also boasts an exceedingly rich career in the sector. He was the director of REWE Italy, which was rescued during his mandate, he has also operated Kaufland's business in Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovakia and in the Czech Republic.

Foley has valuable long-standing experience in large retail chains and has been leading the large chain of Aldi in his career and is now in the Magnitum Management, a Russian chain where VTB Bank, which owns about seven percent of the new Fortenova, bought and sold shares from February to May 2018.

The board of directors also includes a workers' representative whose name is as yet unknown. The executive board of directors who will operate the company will have three members, Fabris Peruško, Irena Weber and a member who will be responsible for finances, their name is as yet is unknown.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more on Agrokor.

ZAGREB, March 12, 2019 - Revenues of the Agrokor food and retail group in January 2019 amounted to 1.5 billion kuna, and operating profits totalled 34.2 million, the group's emergency administration said in the latest monthly report on Tuesday.

Data in the report refer to the operations of 16 companies that make up the group's three business segments - Retail and Wholesale, Food, and Agriculture.

The report shows that all three segments saw an increase in revenues and EBITDA in January compared to the plan.

The report also shows that the operating expenses of Agrokor's emergency administration, in the period from 10 April 2017, when it took over the management of the group, to the end of January 2019, totalled around 1.37 billion kuna, of which the largest portion, 796.3 million kuna, was the cost of legal, financial and other advisors and restructuring consultants.

Operating expenses for January this year totalled 42.8 million kuna, of which 32.3 million kuna was spent on consultants.

The emergency administration recalls in the report, which refers to the period from February 11 to March 11, that the implementation of the settlement agreement between Agokor's creditors, would start on April 1, when the Agrokor conglomerate will cease to operate under that name and will be succeeded by a new umbrella company, Fortenova.

More news about Agrokor can be found in the Business section.

While many continue to disregard it, gender equality in the workplace continues to be a burning issue for most. Konzum, however, seems to have it well and truly covered.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 7th of March, 2019, women account for over 74 percent of Konzum's employees, while in the retail section they account for almost 84 percent, with 84 percent of women in the chain's retail section also holding leadership positions.

From cashiers and workers in the warehouse through to employees in lower and middle management, all the way up to managers in some of the giant company's highest positions, women make up 74 percent of Konzum's employees.

Thus, more than 76 percent of all leadership positions within this huge company belong to women, and women also account for nearly 84 percent of retail workers. It is also interesting to note that women in Konzum have entered into some of the departments that were until fairly recently publicly perceived as "typically male", such as the logistics-distribution centre or the business support section.

"We are exceptionally proud to point out that the vast majority of employees in Konzum are women. Their great effort, teamwork, creativity, intuition, and their level of responsibility they put into their tasks daily enrich and enhance Konzum's business. That's why we want to thank them with a number of benefits through which we're striving to make the balancing between work and home life less difficult,'' said Slavko Ledić, CEO of Konzum, congratulating the International Women's Day for Konzum employees.

All parents of first grade kids who work for Konzum have the right to have a day off on their child's first day of the school, and there are as many as 222 other employee benefits available this school year. In December, an amount of money intended for children is paid to all parents, along with other benefits for all employees, such as benefits for newborn babies, christmas bonuses and more, the possibility of working part-time is also readily available.

Konzum has emphasised the fact that it as a company cherishes the policy of equal opportunities for women and men so that everyone gets an equal shot at opportunities for further professional advancement, additional education and training, as well as equality between women and men in high positions, and in terms of wages, so that women and men are equally paid for working in the same positions.

Make sure to stay up to date by following our dedicated business page for much more.

ZAGREB, March 6, 2019 - Slovenia's Mercator retail chain is in a better shape today than in the period before Agrokor bought it, the conglomerate emergency administrator, Fabris Peruško told Slovenia's STA news agency, and expresses hope that the company will be successfully integrated in the new Agrokor, or as it will be named, Fortenova as of April 1.

"When we bought Mercator, it was not a healthy company and Agrokor gave it an important injection to survive," Peruško said and added that the problem in operations after the merger emerged later.

"The problem was that Mercator and Agrokor didn't jointly create a platform on which they would be healthy partners for their suppliers, however, Fortenova will resolve some essential obstacles in business operations and quality partnerships with suppliers will be made, which is a great opportunity for cooperation to continue," Peruško told STA.

He added that he was cooperating well with Slovenia's Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek and commented on frequent speculation in Slovenia's media according to which Slovenian banks, as Mercator's creditors, might withdraw its support from Mercator entering the Fortenova system due to alleged danger that money could be siphoned from the Slovenian retail chain, which was one of the reasons why the Slovenian government adopted a law dubbed Lex Mercator, and appointed its own emergency administrator in Mercator's management board.

The current situation is such that Agrokor's receivables from Mercator are in fact higher than its claims towards the conglomerate and it is not true that Agrokor is siphoning money from Mercator, Peruško said and added that the foundation for future cooperation between Mercator and the core company are "healthy synergic relations," and not mutual exhaustion.

The largest Croatian food and retail chain took over Mercator in 2014.

More news about Agrokor can be found in the Business section.

Croatia's infamous VAT is throwing prices around much more than one might expect at first when shopping in Lidl or Spar. Just how does your weekly shop in Croatia compare to a weekly shop in neighbouring Slovenia?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 5th of March, 2019, when taking a walk through six Slovenian and Croatian shops, it didn't take long to realise that retailers are struggling with their own branded goods, which are already sold at relatively low prices, and they could actually save well on them.

The popular Italian retail chain Eurospin, known for its discount prices, hasn't yet opened its doors in Croatia, but it can be revealed that the retail companty is indeed looking for locations for its stores across the country. It also has its own website in Croatian language on which the following has been published: "Still a little more patience ... We're coming."

A group of 24sata journalists from Croatia visited their store in Laško in neighbouring Slovenia to check if their prices really are lower than their competitors, and what prices were in comparison to the Croatian market.

They selected a basket of fourteen different products and compared then - Eurospin was cheaper than the first competitor in Slovenia by just a few lipa.

They also compared the prices in Slovenian stores with those in Croatia - some shopping baskets are very much the same, and the difference between the cheapest Slovenian product and the most expensive Croatian one is 22 kuna. However, it should be borne in mind that Slovenians have two tax rates applied when it comes to retail - 22 and 9.5 percent, and they also have a lower VAT rate (surprise, surprise) than is applied in Croatia, of 25 and 13 percent.

Eurospin appears very similar to the already popular Lidl.

When comparing the cheapest Slovenian and cheapest Croatian basket, the difference is 10.82 kuna. There were, as stated, forteen different products in the basket. When looking around on February the 25th of this year, the group of Croatian journalists visited the popular Slovenian shops including Eurospin, Lidl, Spar, and Mercator, the majority owner of which is Croatia's formerly ailing Agrokor.

They tried to find the cheapest products (flour, oil, butter...). When comparing detergents and softeners, they looked for products that were cheaper per litre, regardless of the size of the packaging, ie, whether the product volume is one, two, four litres...

Their cart showed that Eurospin was actually slightly more expensive than Croatia's beloved Lidl, at least on that day - by 2.30 kuna, Spar was cheaper by 3.60 kuna, and Mercator was cheaper by a not so insignificant 21.53 kuna.

Eurospin and Lidl have been shown to have relatively similar prices, and according to their trade concept, each reminds one of the other. Spar, which had the biggest store in Laško, had similar and sometimes identical prices as those in Eurospin. Only Mercator was considerably more expensive than the others, but their overall offer, just like at Spar, was much richer than that of Lidl and Eurospin.

The Italian discount store, just like Lidl, often only offers its own brands on it shelves, or products made by only one manufacturer - for example, only one type of oil, one type of sugar, one type of flour, etc.

The 24sata journalists compared the products purchased over in Slovenia to those in Lidl and Spar in Zagreb the following day, once again searching for the cheapest of all.

The most expensive shopping basket in Zagreb was from Lidl and it was 13.67 kuna more expensive than Eurospin in Slovenia. Let's remember, it should be taken into account that VAT in Croatia is higher certainly has a big influence over Croatian prices. The cheapest basket was from Spar in Zagreb, but when compared to Eurospin in Slovenia, it was still more expensive - by 8.52 kuna.

Make sure to stay up to date by following our dedicated business page.

Click here for the original article by Ivancica Ladisic and Katarina Dimitrijevic Hrnjkas for 24sata

ZAGREB, March 1, 2019 - The implementation of the settlement agreement between Agrokor's creditors will start on 1 April when the management of the concern, currently run by the Emergency Administration, will be transferred to a new company called Fortenova Grupa, according to a decision made by Agrokor's interim creditors' council.

Fortenova Group is the new name for an umbrella company that will replace Agrokor d.d. and start operating on 1 April, according to a press release issued by Agrokor.

Of the 159 companies doing business within the Agrokor Group, 77 companies run by the Emergency Administration will be the first to undergo the implementation of the settlement deal.

Concerning the new corporate management structure, it is likely that the new, nine-member management board will include three executive directors. Current Emergency Administrator Fabris Peruško is a candidate for one of those three posts.

Deputy Emergency Administrator Irena Weber is to be nominated for the posts of deputy chief executive director and chief operating director.

The press release quotes Weber as saying that the procedure of emergency administration had laid down considerably healthier foundations for the group's operations and that there was a clear vision of how to develop the core businesses.

The government-appointed extraordinary commissioner for Agrokor, Fabris Peruško, said on Thursday that the implementation of the debt settlement deal reached by creditors would mark the completion of the process of salvaging the food and retail conglomerate, adding that at least 50,000 jobs had been saved.

"With the implementation of the creditors' settlement deal we are finalising the demanding process of salvaging the company that was on the brink of total collapse only two years ago," Peruško told a press conference after a meeting of Agrokor's Interim Council of Creditors.

Asked if the new owners would be allowed to sell their stakes as of April 1, Peruško said that the owners of the Fortenova Group would formally become the new owners of Agrokor on April 1 and could continue developing the company.

Asked until when he expected the settlement deal to be implemented by companies abroad, he said that most of those processes should be finalised within three to four months.

As for the employees, Peruško said that all their rights would be transferred to the new group and there would be no changes.

More news about Agrokor can be found in the Business section.

As Index writes on the 26th of February, 2019, a panel discussion and a study on the restructuring of Agrokor organised by TMA Europe was held today in Zagreb. Its speakers were Agrokor's extraordinary commissioner Fabris Peruško, his deputy Irena Weber, as well as other most important people who were involved in restructuring the formerly ailing company which once threatened to collapse the Croatian economy almost entirely.

Alastair Beveridge from AlixPartners and Goran Horvat of KPMG Croatia also spoke, as N1 reports. Peruško stated that if this key Croatian company was in Germany, it would have had 650 billion euro impact on the budget.

In addition to describing the impact it would have had on the budget over in Germany, Peruško also added that if Agrokor existed in Germany, it would be able to employ a massive 900,000 people and the suppliers themselves would have five million employees.

He detailed the entire history of Agrokor's long and often agonising restructuring process, from its liquidity and its huge debt problems, all the way through to the development of a special law to the settlement process.

"The Agrokor administration tried to resolve the situation, and at the same time the government attempted to create Option B in case the management failed to come up with solutions with large banks and suppliers. The existing law didn't foresee a procedure for such a large company and the government issued a law on April the 6th based on the Italian case of Parmalat, and Agrokor's leadership resigned, after which the extraordinary administration entered [into the company] on April the 10th,'' stated Peruško.

The law protected 60,000 jobs in Agrokor and prevented spill overs to other suppliers, ultimately stopping the chance of bankruptcy of Agrokor's numerous affiliated companies.

''As I said at the beginning, we're talking about more than 3.5 percent of revenue in the Croatian budget, and we've prevented the spilling over of this to other countries because Agrokor is the largest employer in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the second [largest] in Serbia, it all coincided with the tourist season and Agrokor is the largest supplier of tourism infrastructure. The economy has recovered from the recession and a new shock would have had a devastating effect on the economy,'' said Peruško, announcing the following steps in Agrokor's restructuring process, ie the transfer of operations to its mirror companies, as well as the business plan.

Alastair Beveridge from AlixPartners, a company which was a frequent target of ex Agrokor boss Ivica Todorić's accusatory blog posts, referred to Agrokor's restructuring as being unique in this region and said that one of the biggest problems (which is rather characteristic of administrative bodies in all sectors in Croatia in general) was the lack of information. He added that the amount of cash was shockingly mininal and that at one point, a mere ten kuna alone sat in the gigantic company's account. Beveridge's remarks are a terrifying reminder of what could have become of Agrokor, its many suppliers, jobs, and the Croatian economy.

"Many companies had ceased their production, so one of the issues was launching production, and that's what we needed to collect cash for. We had to look at each business well and set priorities. With nearly fifty assistants, we raised almost 400 million euros. I think it's a big step to borrow money to such a huge company. In the end, we had two offers, only one could manage to arrive in time, we managed, with the help the Croatian National Bank, to secure 540 million euro of fresh money which came in early June, which saved the company,'' Beveridge said.

For more on Agrokor and the business and investment climate in Croatia, follow our dedicated business page.