Slavko Ledić from the helm of Konzum to the head of Kraš

The Supervisory Board of Kraš appointed Slavko Ledić as the CEO of the company on Tuesday, who will assume this position on May 16, while the current CEO Damir Bulić will become a member of the Management Board, Kraš reported. The Supervisory Board of Kraš accepted the resignation of the CEO Damir Bulić at the meeting on Tuesday, who will continue his career at Kraš as a member of the Management Board, and Slavko Ledić was appointed as the new CEO, Kraš announced on the Zagreb Stock Exchange.

Ledić has been appointed CEO for one year, with his term lasting from May 16, 2020, to May 23, 2021, Kraš stated. Ledić comes to the leadership position at Kraš from the position of CEO of Konzum, which he has led for the past five years. In Kraš’s statement, Ledić emphasizes that he is proud to take on the role of CEO and is confident that he will contribute to realizing all the potential that Kraš has.

“Our goal is to position Kraš as the leading confectionery industry in the region, and we will achieve this by improving and modernizing business processes while maintaining and developing all the values on which Kraš bases its successful history of nearly 110 years. The focus of my work will be on increasing production and sales, strengthening Kraš’s position in existing markets, and expanding into new ones, all based on top quality, a long tradition, and the established recognition of Kraš’s brands and products,” emphasizes the new CEO of Kraš.

He also thanked Bulić, who has successfully led the company so far, and is pleased that they will continue to create new values together. Ledić expresses gratitude to everyone at Konzum and the Fortenova Group for their support and trust throughout the years at the helm of Konzum. It was announced yesterday that Ledić is leaving the top position at Konzum, which will be taken over by Zoran Mitreski in mid-May.

Kraš’s statement mentions that the company’s leadership is working on further adapting the business in the context of the consequences of these challenging times, as well as developing plans for various future scenarios and levels of impact of the crisis on the company’s operations, the industrial sector, and the economy as a whole. Among the first steps of the new CEO, as they point out, will be a deep analysis of the business, which has already begun at the end of last year with the aim of creating a restructuring plan and further investments.

The challenge for the new Management Board will be to realize the enormous potential of the company by strengthening the efficiency of distribution channels, opening new markets, increasing operational efficiency and productivity, and modernizing existing capacities, Kraš stated.

Additionally, the new CEO of Kraš was appointed by the Supervisory Board, whose six members submitted their resignations last week, on May 7, which will take effect from the date of the regular general assembly planned for July 3. Resignations in the Supervisory Board were submitted by Zoran Para, Marija Cari, Zlatan Lisica, Ana Mikuš Beban, Vedran Toli, and Nevena Pivac. All members of the Supervisory Board submitted their resignations in the desire to enable the election of a new Supervisory Board after a significant change in the company’s shareholding structure, emphasized in last week’s statement by the resigning president of Kraš’s Supervisory Board, Zoran Parać.

The majority owner of Kraš is the Meat Industry Braća Pivac, which holds 51.04 percent of the shares. According to the latest data from the Central Clearing Depository, the second-largest shareholder is Kappa Star, owned by Serbian entrepreneur Nebojša Šaranović, who has 29.91 percent of the shares of the Croatian confectionery company.

Kraš is squeezing out minority shareholders of Mira from Prijedor

Kraš announced today via the Zagreb Stock Exchange that the Supervisory Board also agreed with the decision that, after Kraš has crossed the threshold of 96 percent of shares in the Prijedor-based Mira, the process of transferring shares from minority shareholders (squeeze out) of Mira will be initiated, with the payment of appropriate financial compensation.

In accordance with the provisions of the applicable Companies Act of the Republic of Srpska, Kraš will, as announced, submit a request for convening the general assembly of Mira from Prijedor to make a decision on the transfer of shares from minority shareholders to Kraš, with the payment of appropriate financial compensation. Earlier, Kraš announced that in the takeover offer, which was published on March 26, they acquired and paid for just over 3.8 million shares, or 20.59316 percent of Mira’s shares.

Upon completion of the takeover process, Kraš, which operates jointly with the Meat Industry Braća Pivac, will own more than 17.86 million, or 96.685741 percent of Mira’s shares.