Confused by Agrokor Situation? 5 Facts Uncovered in Last Few Days

Feeling a bit confused?

As Index reports on the 10th of October, 2017, everything that has risen to the surface as far as Agrokor is concerned has been somewhat uncomfortable, and the last few days have been the icing on the cake, for want of a better expression. While it has become clear that someone is going to end up behind bars at some point, many things still remain unclear to the majority of people. How can we condense the whole situation? Here are five facts that have come to light in recent days which are important to know when it comes to the messy stuation in Croatia’s largest privately owned company…

1. Ivica Todorić is no longer the owner of Agrokor

Although he is still formally managing things as the owner, Ivica Todorić is no longer in the untouchable position he once enjoyed. This is evident from the audit report released last week which clearly shows that Agrokor’s assets amounted to 41.8 billion kuna, and its total liabilities amounted to 56.3 billion kuna, which means that the loss above the capital was 14.5 billion kuna and that the owners are now actually the creditors.

2. There were many ”mistakes” and lies in the books

At the beginning of the year, the first doubts from official sources (such as rating agencies) began to appear in regard to Ivica Todorić’s financial books. It appeared that Agrokor’s reports were not in line with the accepted rules of the profession. Now it has been revealed that there are enormous deviations, amounting to billions of dollars, and some of these “mistakes” are likely to be construde as criminal offenses. Ante Ramljak, Agrokor’s extraordinary commissioner, filed a criminal charge himself against persons in the company responsible for these ”mistakes”. We learned that in 2015, Agrokor didn’t have a profit of 1.2 billion kuna, but a loss of 3.6 billion kuna. Last year the company underwent a loss of as much as 11.2 billion kuna, and the list goes on.

3. Agrokor footed the bill for Ivica Todorić’s luxury life

Although we already knew that the helicopter, yachts and numerous luxury cars were owned by Agrokor as a company, they ended up on the books of the audit report, which revealed that Todorić’s enviable lifestyle was also funded by company money. Todorić’s luxurious lifestyle cost the company approximately one billion kuna.

4. Zdravko Marić will hold on to his job as finance minister

Ivica Todorić’s former Director of Strategy and Capital Markets, Zdravko Marić, who moved from his position within Agrokor to the Croatian government and became the finance minister, apparently still has no intention of departing from his office. Though Marić’s role involved communication with investors, it would appear that the suspicions that have and continue to surround him do not hinder his ability continue to pretend that the whole situation is of no concern to him, and that Agrokor’s books did not fall under his sphere of duty during his time with the company.

Although Zdravko Marić was ”inherited” from the previous government, Prime Minister Plenković appears to have no intention of removing him. For some, the idea that the Ministry of Finance is led by an expert from Agrokor who claims to have been unaware of the depth of the mess the company was in, is somewhat uncomfortable.

5. Ante Ramljak met with creditors before becoming Agrokor’s trustee

Government Commissioner Ante Ramljak found himself in an unusual situation even before the wider public knew who he was and before he was officially appointed by the government to attempt to deal with Agrokor’s problems. At the end of March this year, Ramljak met with representatives of Knighthead, who purchased Agrokor’s bonds on the market. Knighthead is an American fund which buys troubled company bonds and invests in failed cases

Is there anything controversial about their communication with Ramljak? The question is whether or not they had access to privileged information when they bought these bonds? Did they know what Lex Agrokor would look like? Many questions still remain ”above the heads” of almost everyone involved in the Agrokor situation, and it seems that we have a very, very long way to go before the situation becomes even remotely clear.

 

Excerpts translated from Index.hr

 

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