ZAGREB, February 27, 2018 – The Croatian government on Tuesday proposed Fabris Peruško for the post of emergency administrator in the heavily-indebted Agrokor food and retail conglomerate and Irena Weber for the post of his deputy.
After Ante Ramljak, the government-appointed emergency administrator for Agrokor, stepped down last week, the government today put forward an official proposal to the Zagreb Commercial Court to replace Ramljak and appoint Peruško as his successor and Weber as Peruško’s deputy.
Peruško is a member of the Management Board of the Tisak company and Weber is a property portfolio advisor to the Agrokor emergency administration.
“I expect our proposals regarding the appointment of the new emergency administrator and his deputy to be accepted by the Commercial Court… and the two officials to take office as soon as possible. The government’s main objective is to keep the economy, the financial system and Agrokor operating, to keep jobs, ensure that a settlement is reached with creditors within the legally prescribed deadline and enable the long-term sustainability of its operations,” said Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, adding that the government’s engagement in that regard would continue.
Plenković said that the temporary board of Agrokor’s creditors welcomed the appointment of Peruško and Weber as very positive.
Peruško graduated from Ljubljana University’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering, he obtained an MA degree from Ljubljana’s Faculty of Economics and a master of business administration degree from Babson College in Boston. He worked as a consultant for McKinsey&Co for five years, providing consultancy on restructuring programmes for various industries, from banking to fast-moving consumer goods and technology, in Europe and Russia. Before his appointment in Tisak in 2016, he worked as an independent consultant to the management boards of several regional companies.
Weber was Ramljak’s advisor since June 2017, in charge of the property portfolio and non-core businesses. She was a member of the management board of Kentbank from September 2016 to March 2017, when she transferred to Agrokor.
Agrokor confirmed last Wednesday that its emergency administrator Ramljak had tendered his irrevocable resignation to Plenković so as not to become an obstacle to the reaching of a settlement with Agrokor’s creditors.
Ramljak came under pressure in late January, when the media reported that he hired his former employer, Texo Management, as a consultant in Agrokor, for which the company receives nearly 250,000 kuna a week. This prompted public debate on the consultants’ fees and Ramljak’s possible conflict of interest.
The media also reported at the time that Ramljak was Texo Management’s employee until April 30, 2017, even though he was appointed Agrokor’s emergency administrator on April 10 that year.
