Payment of 378 million kuna from approved credit to the most vulnerable suppliers of Agrokor

The Coordination of Producers and Suppliers reported on Friday that the temporary creditors’ council of Agrokor made its first decision on Thursday to disburse 378 million kuna from approved credit funds to the most vulnerable suppliers.

“Yesterday, the first meeting of the creditors’ council was held in the extraordinary administration process over Agrokor. The creditors’ council made its first decision to disburse a total of 378 million kuna. The source of financing is the credit funds approved yesterday, and the council unanimously decided to redirect the money to the most vulnerable suppliers,” stated the Coordination of Producers and Suppliers of Agrokor.

The extraordinary commissioner of Agrokor, Ante Ramljak, reported on Thursday that an agreement was signed with four Croatian banks for a loan of 80 million euros, with an interest rate of 4.97 percent, for a term of 15 months.

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An order has already been given to release these funds into the system of the group and to all suppliers of companies that are members of the Agrokor group. Starting tomorrow, payments will begin to all suppliers of Konzum, Tisak, Jamnica, Ledo, and all companies within the group, Ramljak said in a statement to reporters.

“I believe we have accomplished something significant. Also, all salaries have been paid. Thus, we have concluded this week with very positive and good results,” Ramljak assessed.

As announced, the first to receive money from this loan will be “several thousand small family farms and medium-sized enterprises that have not been paid for months.”

Claims of suppliers against Agrokor, according to the financial report for the first nine months of last year, amount to approximately 16 billion kuna.

The Commercial Court in Zagreb on Thursday issued a decision on the appointment of members of the temporary creditors’ council, which includes representatives of the relevant groups of creditors. The representative of Kraš, livestock farmer from Gudovac Toni Raič, representatives of the American company Knighthead Capital Management, Russian Sberbank, and Zagrebačka banka were appointed to the temporary creditors’ council.

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By the court’s decision, five members were appointed to the temporary creditors’ council, as provided by the Law on the Extraordinary Administration Procedure in Companies of Systemic Importance for the Republic of Croatia.

The temporary creditors’ council has the same rights, powers, and obligations as the “regular” creditors’ council until it is established.

The law, in fact, stipulates that the creditors’ council has a maximum of nine members, representatives of creditors. The number of council members and the classification into groups of creditors is determined by the court at the proposal of the extraordinary commissioner, with the number of members needing to be odd.