The Serbian government has expressed its support over the planned merger of Slovenian retailer Mercator and its parent Agrokor.
Speaking at a meeting of Mercator suppliers, Serbia’s minister of trade, tourism and telecommunications, Rasim Ljajić, said that the final implementation of the Agrokor settlement should take place in mid-March, which will result in a new company with new management.
The minister also said that he expects all Agrokor group companies in Serbia to continue operating.
Investment Value
According to Ljajić, Sberbank, the owner of the largest share package of Agrokor, will seek to increase the value of the group and recover its investments; a process that could take three to five years.
He said that it is crucial to preserve confidence in the brand, stressing that the Agrokor crisis, which began two years ago, was largely overcome because of the confidence and understanding shown by the big suppliers.
Scope For Growth
The retail market in Serbia needs consolidation and modernisation, and there is scope for Mercator and other companies to assist with this process, Ljajić explained.
Mercator employs over 8,000 people in Serbia, and sources from more than 700 local suppliers.
In 2018, the retailer paid €150 million in taxes to the Serbian state.
It operates more than 320 stores under the Roda and Mercator banners in 78 cities and towns across Serbia.
Mercator is a significant exporter of Serbian products, as it is the only retailer operating in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Montenegro.
The Slovenian Government has said that it has no intention to nationalise the company, as reported by some local media.
'Stable Business'
Elsewhere, however, Slovenian economic minister, Zdravko Počivalšek, told the Večer newspaper that the Government wants to pull the company out of Agrokor, “which has so far proved to be a bad owner”, and give it “a more stable business future".
Počivalšek added that the possible exemption of Mercator from the reorganisation of Agrokor is constantly being discussed with retail consortium's leadership, as well as representatives of Sberbank.
He believes it is the right time to start the search for a new owner for Mercator, which employs 10,000 people in Slovenia and sources around €500 million worth of products from Slovenian suppliers annually.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
