Benevolent Analysis of Agrokor: Former Slovenian ‘Tycoon’ Writes a Popular Blog from Prison

Former director of the Slovenian retail chain Merkur, Bin Kordež, sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for economic crime, has started writing a blog in prison that attracts attention from both professionals and laypeople with its economic analyses, and recently touched upon the situation in Agrokor.

After reaching a plea deal with the state prosecutor regarding the acknowledgment of 11 criminal acts in the area of economic crime, Kordež was sentenced two years ago to 7 and a half years in prison and a fine of 23,500 euros, in one of the first ‘tycoon trials’ in Slovenia with a final verdict. This is the highest penalty imposed in Slovenia for economic crime to date.

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Kordež has been named Slovenian Manager of the Year multiple times, during a period when his chain of technical goods stores was thriving and expanding in the region, which was interrupted by recession and economic crisis, particularly the decline of the construction sector.

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At the sentencing, Kordež stated that he respects the verdict even though he does not feel guilty. It was rumored in the corridors that he was sacrificed to the dissatisfied public as an example that the judiciary functions, as he did not have the good political protection enjoyed by other ‘tycoons’ who privatized and indebted companies.

Benevolent Analysis of Agrokor

On the portal Drugi svet, Kordež publishes his blog at least once a month, which is sometimes picked up by more popular media, as it is filled with business analyses and charts.

In April, Kordež published a blog in which he very thoroughly and quite benevolently analyzed the newly emerged situation in Agrokor, after discussions began about its debt and structural difficulties with illiquidity.

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As the main problem of Agrokor in that analysis, Kordež mentioned very high interest rates of up to ten percent that the owner of Agrokor had to pay on borrowed loans.

He claims that Agrokor would have retained 200 million euros annually in its balance sheet if it had received loans under ‘normal’ conditions and with usual interest rates, but warns that despite this, significant banks and institutions supported Todorić with loans during his expansion, even when he decided to purchase Mercator.

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Although he warns that he presents his theses based on the study of the official balance sheet and with the reservation that there are no ‘skeletons in the closet’, Kordež states that whoever embarks on a possible purchase of Agrokor’s debts at a discounted price after the company has been destabilized and lost the trust of the financial market could ultimately profit, and he also mentions possible ‘geostrategic perspectives’ of the entire case.

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