ZAGREB, June 9 (Hina) - Slovenia's company "Mercator" has recently acquired the lion's share of a Croatian chain of shops "Sloboda" from Velika Gorica, outside Zagreb. Representatives of the two companies held a news conference in
Zagreb on June 7 to inform the public about the conclusion of the first round of the integration of 'Sloboda' into Mercator, which took less than two months. The value of the stock capital of the Croatian firm is 16.68 million German marks, and Mercator concluded contracts on acquiring 81.1 percent of the shares. In the coming month it is expected to become the absolute owner of 'Sloboda' holding 100 percent of its shares. Asked by reporters about a letter which Ivica Todoric, the head of the Agrokor management, forwarded him responding to Sloboda's take-over by the Slovene firm, Sloboda's management chairman, Ivica Zupetic said t
ZAGREB, June 9 (Hina) - Slovenia's company "Mercator" has recently
acquired the lion's share of a Croatian chain of shops "Sloboda"
from Velika Gorica, outside Zagreb.
Representatives of the two companies held a news conference in
Zagreb on June 7 to inform the public about the conclusion of the
first round of the integration of 'Sloboda' into Mercator, which
took less than two months.
The value of the stock capital of the Croatian firm is 16.68 million
German marks, and Mercator concluded contracts on acquiring 81.1
percent of the shares. In the coming month it is expected to become
the absolute owner of 'Sloboda' holding 100 percent of its shares.
Asked by reporters about a letter which Ivica Todoric, the head of
the Agrokor management, forwarded him responding to Sloboda's
take-over by the Slovene firm, Sloboda's management chairman,
Ivica Zupetic said they had conducted talks with Agrokor, but this
Croatian concern had not offered any concrete proposal.
Todoric has asserted that his company was denied the opportunity to
give offer for the purchase of Sloboda's shares or to present its
plans for the further development of the Velika Gorica firm.
Commenting on the business plans of Mercator in Croatia, the
company's management chairman, Zoran Jankovic, said Mercator was
continuing to carry out its plans about investments this year.
The construction of the first Mercator centre in Zagreb is under
way. As soon as the company obtains all necessary licences and
permits, it will begin building its centres in the other two
Croatian cities - Rijeka and Split. There are plans for the
construction of another centre in the Croatian capital.
For these investments in Croatia which should be materialised in a
few next years, the company has secured DM 300 million. It will open
1,600 jobs and intends to have 500-million- worth turnover
annually.
Jankovic said that this year a society 'Mercator Hrvatska
(Croatia)' should be established. At the start it will comprise
Mercator's centre in Pula and the Sloboda company, with its
headquarters in Velika Gorica.
A strategic goal of Mercator is to become a leading chain of shops in
Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Yugoslavia and to be
listed among the 200 biggest chains in the world by 2003, he added.
In 2001, the company should make a DM 36-million profit.
(hina) ms