Sberbank Seeking Buyers for Stake in Croatia's Agrokor

After the complex rescue of Croatia's biggest private company, Agrokor, which ended with a debt-for-equity swap, the biggest shareholder, Russia's Sherbank, told BIRN that it does not intend to own the firm long-term and wants to sell its stake.

"Agrokor is a non-core business that we do not intend to own long-term, and our sole desire is to sell this business. It is simply a question of the time, price and partner," Anastasia Gula, from Sberbank's press office, told BIRN on Friday.

Sberbank chief executive Alexander Vedjakin said on Thursday on the margins of the Davos meeting that the bank was planning to sell its stake, Russia's Kommersant newspaper wrote, citing Reuters news agency.

Staggering under 7 billion euros in debt, the equivalent of 15 per cent of Croatia's economic output, Agrokor was taken under state-appointed management in early 2017 under a special law, dubbed the Lex Agrokor, to avert its collapse and the loss of more than 50,000 jobs across the region.

Creditors reached a debt restructuring deal in July 208, which Zagreb's High Commercial Court confirmed on October 26.

The restructuring deal left Sherbank as the biggest owner, with 39.2 per cent of the shares. Bondholders, including Knighthead Capital, hold another 25 per cent. Russia's VTB bank has a 7.5-per-cent stake and Zagrebacka Banka holds 2.3 per cent.

As BIRN reported last November, many analysts and economic experts saw the creditor agreement as only the end of one chapter in the Agrokor saga.

Big questions remain over the fate of the conglomerate, the myriad businesses across the region that it still controls, its new shareholders, still-disgruntled smaller creditors and the intentions of Sberbank as holder of the largest stake.

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