Sberbank to sell its Agrokor stake – Arab investors interested

The Russian Sberbank, a key shareholder in Agrokor, has received offers for the sale of its stake in the concern which is currently leaving the debt crisis, said Maxim Poletayev, the Sberbank CEO aide.

Poletayev said that Sberbank had already started to get proposals to buy out the bank’s stake from different kinds of distressed funds spanning the United States and Canada to the UK.

He told Reuters that Fabris Perusko was expected to be Agrokor’s CEO.

Croatian media remind that, in October, a Croatian court approved a deal for the indebted Agrokor that includes a debt-for-equity swap and that Sberbank is soon to become Agrokor’s largest shareholder with a 39.2% stake.

Poletayev said that Sberbank was also in talks with a number of investors who may take part in refinancing Agrokor’s super-senior debt. He added that Agrokor was interesting to Arab investors as a supplier of water and food.

Agrokor’s Mercator brand - which includes 985 stores spread across Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro - needs to reduce its debt, Poletayev said, putting it at 738 million euros in the January-September period, Reuters reports.

Poletayev also said that Agrokor’s chain in Bosnia was not profitable enough and he believed the best option would be to redirect investments to Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.

Sberbank stake in Agrokor

Agrokor shares

sale of Sberbanke stake in Agrokor

Maxim Poletayev

Fabris Perusko

Ivica Todoric