Croatia Govt Admits Secret Meetings With Agrokor

N1 media on Wednesday claimed that Croatian government officials met on Tuesday with representatives of the Russian state-owned Sberbank to discuss large loans it gave to Croatia's biggest privately-owned company, Agrokor.

The owner of the biggest retail store in the region, Konzum, faces financial troubles, caused in part by lowered credit ratings by different agencies, which have caused unease about its future.

Sberbank supplied Agrokor with two loans in 2014 and 2016 worth 950 million euros, while another Russian state-owned bank, VTB, has also lent the company hundreds of million of euros.

Neither the government nor Sberbank have confirmed the meeting.

"Sberbank is in direct communication with Agrokor. However, we can not comment in detail on the relationship with our clients," Sberbank told BIRN, when asked about media reports of meetings with government officials.

However, on Tuesday, N1 carried news of another secret meeting of government officials on Agrokor.

According to N1, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, chair of parliament Bozo Petrov, Economy Minister Martina Dalic and Finance Minister Zdravko Maric met with Agrokor's owner, Ivica Todoric, on March 5, allegedly to discuss ways to help the company, including proposals that the state buy a certain portion of the company. The idea was reportedly rejected due to the immense cost.

Under pressure from the media, the government has admitted holding meetings with the troubled company.

"We are familiar with the lowering of the credit ratings of Agrokor and ... in this context, there was a meeting of representatives of the government, the Croatian parliament and Agrokor,"  the govermnent said in a statement.

It added that the two main partners in government...