Unknown Vučijević Becomes the Largest Shareholder of Varteks Instead of Bakić, but a Real Estate Fund is Also in the Game

Nenad Bakić sold his stake in Varteks to entrepreneur Marko Vučijević, who is also the owner and director of Global Consulting & Intelligence, a company registered in Zagreb. In a brief conversation, Vučijević confirmed Bakić’s claims published on his Facebook profile, stating that he will strive to find a way for the company to emerge from the crisis together with the current head of Varteks Dražen Dobiš.

– I do not intend to change anything, the management team remains the same, we will work together to find a solution for the exit from the crisis in which the company has found itself – said Vučijević for Lider.

That is all he wanted to say, indicating that he would address the media after Easter. Varteks director Dražen Dobiš confirmed that he had an ‘initial conversation with Vučijević’ last Monday.

– At that meeting, I introduced him to the state of the company and the direction it is heading. He is a young gentleman who, it seems to me, has the energy and desire to put Varteks on solid ground – said Dobiš.

The same was said by the deputy chair of the Supervisory Board Božica Čićek Mutavdžić, who added that at that meeting, besides her and Dobiš, there were also sector directors who acquainted Vučijević with the operations in their areas of responsibility.

– I cannot tell you much about him, except that he left me with the impression that he is proactive and genuinely wants to help Varteks. I hope that we will all succeed together – said Čićek Mutavdžić.

We also spoke with some former employees of Varteks, but no one knew anything to say about Vučijević.

Key Next Two Months

Dobiš also stated that besides Vučijević, there is interest from an investment real estate fund in investing in Varteks. He could not say who it is, only emphasizing that contact was made with the fund in February of this year. It is not about recapitalization, but the fund could invest money in Varteks (perhaps through a loan secured by real estate), which would help repay a significant portion of the debt.

When asked if Vučijević and the mentioned fund are connected, Dobiš answered negatively. He emphasized that the next two months will be crucial for Varteks. At this moment, the Varaždin company is having great difficulty meeting short-term obligations to suppliers, and the pre-bankruptcy proceedings initiated in 2013 are also hard to finance.

There is little information about Vučijević. He is a young man from Dubrovnik (according to data from the Court Register) in his early 30s, whose Global Consulting & Intelligence was registered in Zagreb in February 2019. According to data from Poslovna Hrvatska, the company generated revenue of 4,800 euros (36,000 kuna) in 2019, which increased to 11,800 euros (88,500 kuna) in 2020, and ended 2021 at 26,600 euros (199,500 kuna). Data on the business performance in the previous year has not been published.

Vučijević has taken over 24.91 percent of the shares in Varteks from Bakić (Bakić now holds 14.47 percent of the ownership stake). This means that Vučijević remains below the threshold of 25 percent ownership, which means he is not obligated to publish a takeover bid for Varteks.

Bakić: An Adventure I Should Not Have Dedicated Myself To

Nenad Bakić today announced on his Facebook profile that he has ‘sold (at a very low price) the majority of his shares in Varteks at a significant loss, and intends to sell all the rest’.

– Unfortunately, this investment and attempt to transform this company has gone very poorly for me financially, and poorly in other aspects of life as well. If we had a little more luck and/or support, we could have created a great story. It is hard to forget, for example, how HBOR blackmailed and collected an advance from the sale of inactive real estate in the midst of the greatest crisis, the sale of which was supposed to go exclusively to the rehabilitation of the company and the repayment of debts.

The wrangling of creditors, banks, and others, lately about who will collect how much from the sale of real estate and blocking the rehabilitation of the company is certainly not something that was great to watch (Ksenija Čerin, to whom I transferred my claims in an attempt to rehabilitate the company) never collected a kuna in interest (!) and was the only one to repeatedly offer a significant debt write-off, which other creditors did not support.

For me, this is a topic that unfortunately needs to remain behind me, an adventure I should not have dedicated myself to, but what can you do.

I wish the new largest shareholder Marko Vučijević good luck (he will need it), I recognized in him a sincere desire for the company to attempt rehabilitation, preserve jobs, and enable development. I wish much success to the CEO Dražen Dobiš, who selflessly leads the company, as well as to the supervisory board, in which I especially thank for the cooperation all this time to the chair of the Workers’ Council Božica Čićek-Mutavdžić, with whom I shared a vision and who supported us in our efforts where workers were always the first priority – concluded Bakić.