The deal is signed. Payment for Mercator on Friday.

Pivovarna Laško made the announcement on the pages of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange

26. junij 2014 ob 12.29 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

The consortium of sellers of Mercator signed a deal with Croatian Agrokor on Tuesday for the purchase of a 53 percent majority stake in Mercator. Foto: BoBo

The consortium of sellers of Mercator signed a deal with Croatian Agrokor on Tuesday for the purchase of a 53 percent majority stake in Mercator. The transaction should be finalized on Friday.

"Agrokor informed the consortium of sellers that it withdrew its condition of a debt restructuring procedure, thus enabling the transaction to be finalized," was Pivovarna Laško's announcement on the page of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. The company also informed that the consortium of sellers of Mercator, together with the buyer, set the 27th of June 2014 as the final date for the transaction to be finalized.

The consortium of sellers of Mercator is made up of Pivovarna Laško, Pivovarna Union, Radenska, NLB, NKBM, Gorenjska banka, Prvi faktor-Faktoring, Banka Koper, Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank, NFD, Banka Celje and NFD holding.

An annex to the purchasing agreement, which the consortium and Agrokor signed at the end of February, sets the price of a Mercator share at 86 euros. The buyer will have to pay around 172 million euros for the almost 53 percent stake in Mercator. Agrokor will then have to publish a takeover offer for the remaining shares of Mercator, which would put the entire stake at around 325 million euros.

Restructuring only after Agrokor gives the loan
Agrokor is also expected to increase Mercator's capital for 225 million euros, of which 200 million euros will go to banks. Mercator announced that it signed an agreement with its creditor banks, which sets the commercial conditions for implementing a financial restructuring procedure in case of a takeover by Agrokor. It further informed that the agreement would "go into effect under certain conditions". One of those conditions is that Croatian Agrokor first transfers the loan for the capital increase.

The loan will be used for the early repayment of part of Mercator's debts to its creditor banks. "Agrokor must transfer the subordinated loan before or simultaneously with the acquisition of the majority stake of the Poslovni sistem Mercator Group. After carrying out the takeover procedure it is also obligated to vote for the conversion of the subordinated loan into capital, which would significantly reduce the indebtedness of the Poslovni sistem Mercator Group," is what the Slovenian retailer added.