The Varga Couple Selling Their Stake in Čakovečki Mlinovi?

Trading of shares on the Zagreb Stock Exchange on Monday showed that the price of shares of the company Čakovečki mlinovi jumped to over 11 euros in the morning, an increase of nearly eight percent. On Tuesday, the price fell to 10.70 euros, only to rise again to 10.90 euros on Wednesday. The sudden increase is almost certainly a sign that something is happening, and it is assumed that shareholders Stjepan and Ružica Varga, who collectively hold 26.56 percent of the shares, intend to sell their ownership stakes and completely withdraw from the company’s operations.

According to unofficial information obtained by the Međimurje Press portal, the company most interested in their shares is Zagrebačke pekarne Klara, owned by the Plodinec family and their Sisak company Mlin i pekare.

The largest shareholders of Čakovečki mlinovi are currently the AZ mandatory pension fund, which holds 18.2 percent, the PBZ-CO fund with about 17.3 percent, Stjepan Varga (13.4 percent), Ružica Varga (13.1 percent), Branko Grašić (4.2), Zaba custodial (3.2), and AZ profit (2.9 percent). Pension funds collectively hold 41 percent of the shares of Čakovečki mlinovi.

The Čakovečki mlinovi Group includes a food and retail segment, namely the retail chains Trgovina Krk, Trgocentar Virovitica, and Radnik Opatija. Trgostil was merged into Trgovina Krk at the end of last year, and this transaction increased their operations from the previous 328 stores and 867 million kuna in sales revenue to 435 stores and 1.2 billion kuna in sales revenue based on 2021 figures.

The annual financial report of Čakovečki mlinovi for the year 2002 states that retail is the largest segment of the Group’s business, generating as much as 82 percent of total revenue. Since 2020, the company has been led by Nino Varga, while his father Stjepan Varga has moved to the supervisory board.

Expected Dividend

It is worth noting that the shares of Čakovečki mlinovi achieve the highest trading volume on the stock exchange, amounting to 143 thousand euros, and the company recently requested that its shares be listed in a higher category due to the merger with Trgostil, successfully squeezing out the minority shareholders of Trgovina Krk.

Čakovečki mlinovi generated about 1.4 billion kuna (186.6 million euros) in sales revenue last year, which is 7.5 percent more than in 2021. The net profit amounted to 53.3 million kuna, an increase of as much as 93 percent, and it seems that Klara, or the company Mlin i pekare, which is its largest shareholder, is interested in its food and retail segment.

According to data for 2021, Zagrebačke pekarne Klara achieved revenue of 22.2 million euros, with a loss of 112 thousand euros, while the company Mlin i pekare achieved revenue of 109.1 million euros and a profit of 3.3 million euros in 2021.

It is important to note that the company Mlin i pekare currently owns more than 250 stores in central and northwestern Croatia, so it is not surprising that it shows interest in expanding its business. The trend of consolidation among bakery companies has been present in the market for years, and considering that a meeting of the Supervisory Board of Čakovečki mlinovi was held on Monday, where a decision was made to pay dividends to shareholders, we will only discover the details at the upcoming general assembly.