As Jadranka Dozan/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 12th of December, 2018, with the final approval of the settlement by Agrokor’s formerly embattled creditors, which was confirmed by the High Commercial Court back at the end of October, numerous recruited advisors involved in the process of extraordinary administration, from those dealing with restructuring to financial and legal advisors, were also entitled to compensation for such a welcome success.
There are a whole range of advisory profiles within the gigantic Agrokor Group, some of whom have been engaged since the very beginning of this long and arduous process, and some who arrived at the company only at the later stages, on the basis of the success of Agrokor’s creditor’s settlement, these advisors gained a handsome sum, amounting to 18.9 million euro or about 140 million kuna.
In addition their “regular” fees over the past year and a half have amounted to a massive 66.4 million euro, which is slightly less than half a billion kuna.
These figures were revealed by Agrokor’s extraordinary administration team headed by Fabris Peruško, within the framework of the latest monthly report on Agrokor’s operations, as well as the respective operations of key Agrokor companies, which has been accompanied by more detailed explanations for the high costs of these various advisors and consultants.
In the case of Agrokor, the huge sums paid to advisors were found to be at such a ”special volume” primarily because of the political patronage that has dogged and shown a grim persistence in the entire process, coupled with the controversies that came to the very forefront of the formerly ailing company’s chronic issues because of the total lack of transparency in the Lex Agrokor preparation phase.
However, according to the new monthly report, at the end of October this year, Agrokor d.d. showed that it had spent 726 million kuna on the company’s total advisory and consultancy costs, with more than a tenth of that amount (11 percent or 10.4 million kuna) actually ending up in the state budget. Additionally, the total cost of the advisors, besides their already large fees and creditor’s settlement rewards, also includes the accompanying material costs (two percent of the total amount), the report states.
Until the absolute completion of the settlement, which is expected by the end of the first quarter of 2019, and on which more than 350 people are currently working, these costs will rise by tens of millions of kuna.
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Click here for the original article by Jadranka Dozan for Poslovni Dnevnik
