Unionists Do Not Know What Is Happening with the Company Matica Stanogradnja, of Which They Are Co-Founders

When the model of building and selling apartments at favorable prices for members of state unions through the company Matica Stanogradnja began to be implemented in 2008, its founders believed that the project would prove successful. Until recently, it was, but for the last four years, the construction of apartments for union members has been ‘stuttering’ and it is uncertain whether it will continue.

Matica Stanogradnja was founded by eight unions whose members work in public services: the Police Union of Croatia, the Independent Union of Librarians of Croatia, the Union of Judicial Police of Croatia, the Croatian Professional Union of Nurses – Medical Technicians, the Independent Union of Science and Higher Education, the Union of Employees in Social Welfare Activities of Croatia, the Independent Union of Employees in Secondary Schools of Croatia, and the Union of Croatian Teachers. All of them are gathered in the Matica of Croatian Unions, which has 60 thousand members and is led by Sanja Šprem (President of the Union of Croatian Teachers), who replaced Vilim Ribić last year. A private company, Sigma Matica, owned by its director Zoran Kovač, is also listed as a co-owner of Matica Stanogradnja, with Kovač also serving as the director of Matica Stanogradnja.

Although we tried in various ways to reach Kovač, he ultimately did not respond to us, nor did he answer our inquiry. Interestingly, union leaders are not very familiar with what is happening with the company of which they are co-founders. The last projects were initiated back in 2019, in Zadar (the Višnjik neighborhood), Zagreb (Gradišćanska), and Virovitica (construction never started on land that was owned by the City of Virovitica).

All these projects were initiated in the year before the pandemic, but with the onset of the corona crisis and the war in Ukraine, they have been significantly slowed down, not counting the construction in Virovitica, for which it is unclear, as a union leader who wished to remain anonymous told us, who currently owns the land on which the residential building was supposed to be built. That the other two projects, those in Zadar and Zagreb, have been slowed down is confirmed by the president of the Croatian Professional Union of Nurses – Medical Technicians, Anica Prašnjak, who highlights the problem related to the consequences of the corona crisis and the war in Ukraine.

– First of all, as far as I know, a problem of labor shortages and rising material costs has arisen. It is hard for me to say at what stage it is, but I know for sure that the projects have not been canceled, but slowed down. In any case, the model applied by Matica Stanogradnja has proven to be very successful so far, and I know that, regarding our members, I can say that they are generally satisfied with the purchase of apartments – says Prašnjak.

By the way, all the union leaders we managed to talk to (they were busy with activities due to the Economic-Social Council meeting), both anonymously and publicly, praise this model as very successful and did not indicate that there were any dissatisfied members. One of the more important unionists in this project, who also did not want to speak publicly about it, mentions that union members received a discount of 200 to 400 euros (from 1500 to 3000 kuna) per square meter.

– That is a significant discount if we know that at one time the square meter of an apartment cost 1500 euros or around 11 thousand kuna, which many of our members took advantage of. And I want to note that these are members who were not in higher structures of the union, which means that the leaders did not take advantage of this opportunity – says our interlocutor.

Regarding the delays, he also says that, as far as he knows, the current crisis that began three years ago has affected it, but he also emphasizes that he believes that cooperation between the eight unions and the company owned by Kovač will continue. However, probably based on different relationships, but he did not want to talk more about it because he does not yet know what all the co-owners will offer.

Transparent Model

The operations of Matica Stanogradnja are also satisfactory for the Police Union of Croatia because it has been shown, they emphasize there, that a large part of their members has managed to secure housing issues more favorably. Nevertheless, the question of what is happening with Matica Stanogradnja remains somewhat in the air. Namely, if we look at the revenues of that company (which, by the way, has no employees), they were meager even until 2019. For example, in 2021, they were 31 thousand euros (232.5 thousand kuna), which is not even the value of a studio apartment. The previous year, the revenue was 54 thousand euros (405 thousand kuna), and the highest was in 2019, amounting to 103 thousand euros (772.5 thousand kuna). The net profit in 2019 was 84.4 thousand euros (633 thousand kuna), the following year it was 44.7 thousand euros (335.3 thousand kuna), and in 2021 it was 26.4 thousand euros (198 thousand kuna).

Thus, these meager revenues have been declining from 2019 to 2021. A leader’s analyst and owner of the consulting company Konter, Nikola Nikšić, analyzed the operations of Matica Stanogradnja, stating that the company operates without significant expenses (other external and other costs and interest expenses), which is evident due to the high share of profit in revenues. For example, in 2021, total expenses were only 1.5 thousand euros (11,250 kuna), so the profit before taxation amounted to 29.3 thousand euros (219.8 thousand kuna). We remind you that the revenue that year amounted to 31 thousand euros, but after taxation, the final net profit was, as we mentioned, 26.4 thousand euros (net profit margin 85.6 percent).

These small revenues were achieved thanks to the transfer of profits from project companies that were established and closed after the completion of construction and sale of apartments. This model of establishing a project company linked exclusively to one project has proven to be good, says Nikšić, for those companies that established them and have multiple co-owners, as is the case with Matica Stanogradnja. In this way, for example, the project company determines how many apartments will be sold to union members at a discount and how many will be sold at market price to buyers who are not union members.

Read more in the new issue of digital and printed edition of Lider.