HG Spot Lays Off 50 Percent of Employees

Half of HG Spot’s employees, specifically 115 out of a total of 228, will receive termination notices on Thursday (tomorrow), announced management advisor Hrvoje Prpić at today’s press conference. This is part of a restructuring plan that Prpić officially presented for the first time today.

Regarding the dynamics of debt repayment to the thirteen owners of the second tranche of commercial papers, he did not provide any specific information. – A month ago, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, but today we have managed to retain half of the employees. I would prefer not to disclose more information about the debt restructuring than what was communicated today in the notice to the Zagreb Stock Exchange and Hanfa, said Prpić, justifying himself with the strict reporting rules of the stock exchange and the protection of shareholders and suppliers. However, due to the lack of reporting by HG Spot regarding all activities related to the restructuring plan, Hanfa prohibited trading in shares at the beginning of the week, whose value had increased by 25.8 percent based on rumors and without official announcements from management. When asked if he believes that the summarized notice will be sufficient to unblock trading in shares, Prpić replied that he expects that to happen later today.

He stated that the most important aspect for normal business operations is that they have agreed on additional bank guarantees to suppliers. This was secured last Friday with Zagrebačka banka, which agreed to provide guarantees amounting to 25 million kuna. – Thanks to this, on Tuesday we began equipping the Zagreb branch in Utrina and Škorpikova with new IT equipment, said the management advisor of HG Spot. He added that the restructuring plan for HG Spot will be worked on over the next five years together with the 13 owners of commercial papers and shareholders. When asked if he holds the former management responsible for this, he stated that it is enough to compare salaries and the number of employees with the achieved revenues to see that it was a significant generator of illiquidity. He criticized the former management for inefficiency in operations and mistakes in expanding the business without a solid foundation. The president of the new management of HG Spot is Goran Češnovar, who came from the position of regional brand manager at M SAN, and was officially presented today. (Marija Čekada)