Agrokor Owner Hands Over Control of Troubled Company

Ivica Todoric, the biggest owner of the Croatian economic giant Agrokor, which is going through a tough financial crisis, on Friday signed off the process of "extraordinary management", effectively putting the behemoth under control of the state.

Croatia's parliament adopted the "Law on Procedures for Extraordinary Management in Companies of Systematic Significance" on Thursday.

Nicknamed the "Lex Agrokor", as the law appears designed mainly with the troubled company in mind, it gives the state a crucial role in the restructuring process that may last up to 15 months, during which time company debts are put on hold.

The law empowers the commercial court to name an extraordinary manager of the company, controlled by the Economy Ministry, which will help avoid the need for regular bankruptcy procedures.

Todorovic said he was taking "the mentioned decision in the belief that it is in the best interest of each individual employee, partner and supplier and all other stakeholders in the overall economy.

"I sincerely thank all the employees, close associates and partners with whom I built the most important company in the history of the Republic of Croatia," Todoric wrote in his press release issued on Friday.

He called on everyone to help the company continue working and keeping on its current employees.

"For 40 years, I invested myself in the construction of Croatia and the whole region and, therefore, I am now a proud man because everything I have built I gave the Croatian state today, by my signature," Todoric concluded.

Agrokor's creditors and the company signed a so-called standstill agreement last weekend, putting Antonio Alvarez III - from the global consultancy agency Alvarez & Marsal - into a new post as the...