ZAGREB, February 26, 2018 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenković would not say on Monday if he had selected a new emergency administrator for the ailing Agrokor conglomerate, saying he had a number of names.
He was responding to questions from the press ahead of a meeting of his HDZ party’s Presidency and National Council.
The HDZ’s whip in parliament, Branko Bačić, said he was confident Plenković would “close the Agrokor story” by Wednesday and that the name of the new emergency administrator would be known before the cabinet’s meeting on Thursday. Bačić said it was in everyone’s interest that a settlement be reached and that the creditors and the suppliers be satisfied.
Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević said the new emergency administrator must wrap up the restructuring of Agrokor, which he said had started well, keep jobs and stabilise the economy. In July it will be possible to say that “the Agrokor saga” is finally “behind us”, that jobs have been saved and that the economy has not collapsed, he said. Asked what would happen with Economy Minister Martina Dalić if that did not happen, he said “we will talk differently.”
After today’s meeting of Agrokor’s Temporary Creditors Council and creditors with Plenković and several ministers, the government said in a press release the creditors expressed full support for the continuation of the emergency administration process, the reaching of a settlement and a successful restructuring of Agrokor.
Plenković informed them of the consultations with the new emergency administration candidates whom the government would nominate to the Zagreb Commercial Court this week.
