ZAGREB, June 5, 2018 – First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank Maxim Poletaev said on Tuesday, after talks with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, that he hoped that a settlement deal in the ailing food and retail conglomerate Agrokor would be hammered out as soon as possible.
Poletaev said Sberbank had requested a meeting with the Croatian prime minister to discuss the bank’s position in the Agrokor settlement negotiations.
We are very close to a compromise about the settlement, the talks were very productive and I believe we understood each other, Poletaev told reporters after the meeting in Government House, which was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Tomislav Tolušić, Agrokor emergency administrator Fabris Peruško and his deputy Irena Weber.
Asked about the compromises he was referring to, Poletaev said he would talk about it after the settlement was reached. He added that the situation had dramatically changed and that the bank was happy that the talks were becoming more and more constructive, adding that he hoped a settlement would be reached as soon as possible.
Asked about the future of Agrokor and whether Sberbank would keep its stake in it Agrokor, Poletaev said the bank had long-term plans to keep its stake in Agrokor. Asked if he expected the agreement to be reached by the end of this week, Poletaev said “not by the end of the week, but by the end of this month.”
Sberbank is the largest single creditor of the indebted food and retail group Agrokor, with a 1.1 billion euro claim, of the company’s total debt of around 7.8 billion euro.
Peruško said briefly after the meeting that they “briefed the prime minister about the finalisation of the settlement process.”
