Eugen Paić-Karega at the helm of Dalekovod instead of Tomislav Rosandić

Tomislav Rosandić will no longer be the President of the Management Board of Dalekovod, as announced by the company on the Zagreb Stock Exchange. His term ends on March 31, and the new President of the Management Board from April 1 will be Eugen Paić-Karega, decided the Supervisory Board at yesterday’s meeting. Paić-Karega has been a member of the company’s Management Board since 2022, as has Tvrtko Zlopaša, who remains in that position, and the term of the new Management Board is four years.

The new President of the Management Board built his career at Zagrebačka banka, where he was a member of the Management Board from 2019 to 2020, according to data from Poslovna Hrvatska. Prior to that, from 2011 to 2019, he was the President of the Management Board of Unicredit leasing Croatia.

For now, it is unclear what the reason for this change at Dalekovod is, considering that the company, after emerging from pre-bankruptcy settlement a year and a half ago, had exceptionally good results last year, and towards the end of the year secured large contracts in Sweden and Norway. Additionally, projects worth several billion euros have been announced in Scandinavia and Germany over the next 15 years, and Dalekovod will be engaged in the electrification of railways during this period, which is its second niche, so its prospects seemed bright. However, as Zlopaša recently stated in an interview with Lider, the largest individual shareholder of Dalekovod – the company Advanced Energy Solutions with a 75.16 percent stake – was supposed to be the sole owner at the beginning of January, after Construction line limited (owned by Pavle Vujnovac) exits the ownership structure. However, according to data from the Court Register, this has not yet happened, which does not mean it won’t, but one should not exclude the possibility that this is the reason for Tomislav Rosandić’s departure from the top position at Dalekovod.

Dalekovod Group achieved a revenue of 168 million euros in 2023, which is an increase of 20 percent compared to the same period last year. This is stated in the unaudited and consolidated financial report published on the Zagreb Stock Exchange. The operating revenue of the parent company amounted to 122 million euros, an increase of 22 percent compared to the same period last year. Furthermore, the report states that normalized EBITDA (operating revenue – operating expenses + depreciation – normalization item) at the Group level amounts to 7.8 million euros, representing an increase of 1.7 million euros compared to the same period last year, and is mainly the result of increased activity and improved efficiency and profitability of all segments of the Group, most notably in the parent company and Dalekovod OSO. The normalized EBITDA margin of the Group increased from 4.4 percent in 2022 to 4.6 percent in 2023. The normalized EBITDA at the level of the parent company amounts to five million euros, representing an increase of 0.6 million euros compared to the same period last year. Additionally, the report states that the net profit (loss) of the Group in 2023 amounts to -3.8 million euros, while the loss of the parent company amounts to -4.7 million euros. Despite this, the report states, ‘positive indicators and trends of business recovery represent the basis for an optimistic outlook ahead.’

Dalekovod has only stated through the Zagreb Stock Exchange that the company ‘thanks for the contribution to the successful work of the Management Board and the achieved business results during the challenging period in which a significant step was made towards the operational and financial stability of the company.’