Marinko Zadro, the largest individual shareholder of the Viro sugar factory, is selling his ownership stake in his sugar business to a buyer from Germany, confirmed to Jutarnji list by three sources close to the company and the Zadro family.
His son, Željko Zadro, the CEO of Vira, was in Germany yesterday for business negotiations with a potential buyer, a strategic partner who is conducting an in-depth analysis of the company’s operations. However, as we have learned, it has not yet been decided whether the new foreign owner of the Croatian sugar factory will first buy 25 percent of the shares and then submit a public offer to acquire the rest, given that the company’s shares are listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange, or whether they will agree with the strategic partner to sell the entire company at once, which would also require the consent of other shareholders of Vira, including Croatian pension funds.
According to sources close to him, Marinko Zadro decided on such a move after concluding that following Croatia’s entry into the European Union, the Viro sugar factory would not be able to operate successfully in the long term without a strategic partner.
