"Konzum is owned by Croatia"s Agrokor, the largest agribusiness company in south-eastern Europe operating in the food retail and food and beverage sectors. With this EBRD support, Konzum will be able to restructure its balance sheet and expand its retail network by opening new centres in smaller towns of the country," reads a press release issued on the EBRD web site.
"EBRD will syndicate EUR 25 million of the loan under an A/B structure, while the remaining EUR 25 million will be retained on the Bank"s account. Agrokor will match EBRD"s investment into its subsidiary by increasing its capital in Konzum by EUR7 million."
"With this project the EBRD has once again acknowledged its confidence in Agrokor"s strategy as well as its strong support to the region"s further development. With EBRD as partner Agrokor shall continue to provide even stronger support to improving the economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina by investing in the underdeveloped retail sector, implementing global business standards, by know-how transfer and most importantly, by creating partnerships with local suppliers. Hence this investment shall also strengthen the local industry, generate employment and increase the standard of consumers," Ivan Crnjac, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Capital markets at Agrokor, was quoted as saying.
EBRD began cooperating with Agrokor in 2006 when the Bank made an equity investment of EUR 110 million and became a shareholder of Agrokor.
In October 2008 the EBRD offered a EUR 70 million loan to another Agrokor"s subsidiary, Serbian food retailer Idea, in order to help the company develop modern retail centres in the smaller towns of Serbia.