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Podravka: Reduce Debt by 100 Million Kuna by Year-End

The General Assembly of Podravka shareholders today approved an amendment to the company’s Statute, reducing the number of members of the Supervisory Board from eleven to nine, with Dubravko Štimac, Dinko Novoselec, Petar Vlaić, and Petar Miladin appointed as members of the Supervisory Board.

The remaining members are appointed by the state and the Workers’ Council of the company. All proposals from the Management and Supervisory Board were accepted at the assembly with at least 99.96 percent of the votes from present shareholders, said the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Ljubo Jurčić, at a press conference held after the assembly. The agenda also included financial reports on Podravka’s operations for 2009 and a decision to carry over last year’s loss of 332.6 million kuna to the next period.

The loss must be addressed by generating profits that will cover it, and in this way, we will be able to enter new investment cycles and invest more in marketing and development, said the CEO of the Koprivnica company, Miroslav Vitković. Jurčić agreed that the loss would be easily covered by current operations. Podravka’s leaders emphasize that the company plans to reduce its debt by approximately 100 million kuna by the end of the year. It was also announced that Podravka’s management will utilize all legal options to mitigate or recover damages that Podravka suffers due to the “Spice operation,” and one of the options could be a lawsuit against part of the former Podravka management.

Namely, the assembly also accepted the proposal that three former members of the Management Board who led Podravka until November 18 last year – Zdravko Šestak as CEO, and members Josip Pavlović and Saša Romac, not be granted discharge and thus not approve how they managed the company in 2009, and the former Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Darko Marinac, who led that body until September 14 last year, also did not receive discharge.

At the press conference after the Assembly, Vitković also commented on the disputed loan from OTP Bank, denying that a new payment of 3.8 million kuna is due soon. Podravka’s account at OTP has been closed, and we are seeking a refund of 6.2 million kuna, and if OTP files a lawsuit, we will contest it. According to all data, forced collection is not possible, but this could be a problem for us, as certain things must be reserved when a lawsuit is filed, said Vitković. (H)