Croatia Appoints New Minister to Handle Agrokor Crisis

Croatia's parliament on Friday confirmed the appointments of a new Vice-Prime Minister and Economy Minister - who will be in charge of handling the Agrokor crisis.

Following the resignation of Martina Dalic on May 14, her former positions are assigned to Agriculture Minister Tomislav Tolusic, as Deputy Prime Minister, and to Darko Horvat, as Economy Minister.

Dalic resigned after leaked emails suggested she had used her position to help her friends and business associates in the process of passing a law on the state management of Agrokor. Dalic was the key person involved in dealing with the Agrokor crisis.

As BIRN previously reported, Croatia's biggest private company, employing around 40,000 in the country, fell into financial problems at the beginning of 2017.

In April last year, parliament passed a special law, dubbed the Lex Agrokor, enabling the state to assume "extraordinary" management of the company, to stop it from going bankrupt and save jobs.

The process of reaching a settlement between all Agrokor's creditors - suppliers, banks and bondholders - should end by July 10, when the 15-month period of state management will end.

New minister Horvat served as Minister of Entrepreneurship and Crafts from January to October 2016 under Tihomir Oreskovic.

When quizzed about the problems in Agrokor this week, Horvat said he would not interfere with the extraordinary manager's job.

"Those people know their job and have my full confidence," he said.

Tolusic, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that he expects the Agrokor crisis to end positively, that negotiations with creditors will go in the right direction, and that the company will be restructured and have new owners.

Horvat will be handling other major...