The Agrokor crisis is not showing any signs of subsiding.
On Monday, the coordination of Agrokor’s producers and suppliers unanimously agreed to issue joint demands regarding bills of exchange connected with the group and other issues. They have said that, unless their demands are met by the government by the 29th of May, 2017, they will suspend the delivery of their products to the Agrokor group, reports 24sata.hr on May 22, 2017.
“After nearly 40 days since the government-appointed commissioner Ante Ramljak took over the management of the company, we, the suppliers, are not satisfied with the developments. This has led us to consider certain measures, and whether these measures will be implemented depends on the fulfilment of our requests and conclusions,” said Marica Vidaković from Kraš, after a meeting with other suppliers of Agrokor.
Their first demand has been sent to financial institutions and refers to the prolongation of the date of validity of the memorandum concluded between the suppliers and the financial institutions. She added that the team which negotiated with financial institutions would contact them as soon as possible and try to reach an agreement. “Another conclusion was adopted on the proposal of a colleague who intends to raise a lawsuit against financial institutions, factoring companies, banks, and the Croatian National Bank. He has the support of all the suppliers who participated in today’s meeting, and we will try to prove there was a collusion in the issuing of disguised loans to Agrokor. All the companies which do not have the burden of regress bills of exchange support the colleagues who will take such legal measures,” said Vidaković.
They will also demand an official statement from the Legislative Committee of the Parliament about the correct interpretation of certain provisions of the Law on the Extraordinary Administration Procedure in Companies of a Systemic Importance for the Republic of Croatia (“Lex Agrokor”). They want it to clarify whether new goods delivered to Agrokor are in the same legal position as the loans given to Agrokor after the 10th of April.
They also demand a formal statement by Ramljak and Economy Minister Martina Dalić that all bills of supply have the same status, that is, that all debts under the bills are Agrokor’s debts, rather than debts of any suppliers. Also, it is requested that Agrokor provides new funds as soon as possible so that old financial obligations towards the suppliers can be paid.
If all requests are not fulfilled by the 29th of May, Vidaković said that the suppliers would suspend the delivery of their goods to Agrokor, in order to demonstrate the seriousness of the situation. She added that the suppliers feel betrayed, given that they are not protected by the law as much as others. “It is not natural that just some companies are being protected by the law, while other companies which are not in the Agrokor group can collapse overnight, even though they were healthy companies until just recently. These suppliers have suffered the same systemic damage, and they should also be protected in the same way,” she said.
She added that she did not know how many suppliers were ready to sue, but added that those who decided to do so would have the support of all the other suppliers who would be in solidarity with them “in some other activities that would follow after that” as well.
