Varteks Management Asks Employees for Patience Until Capital Increase Decision, but Unions Claim Even That Money Will Not Be Enough

How the issue of salary payments to Varteks employees for March and part of the salaries for February will unravel is still unclear. This morning, workers went on strike over this, and a new moment in the whole story is the realization that full salaries for February have not been paid despite the fact that CEO Jelena Bošnjak claimed to Lider a month ago that this problem was resolved with a loan from the second largest shareholder Stjepan Čajić. However, as confirmed to us by the president of the Croatian Workers’ Union Association (URSH) Tomislav Rajković, that loan has now proven to be insufficient to cover all debts arising from the unpaid part of the February salaries.

Now, the payment of salaries for April is approaching, and in addition to the part of the salaries for February, salaries for March have also not been paid. We sent an inquiry to Bošnjak, but have not received a response so far, and we also tried to speak with the vice president of the Supervisory Board Božica Čićek Mutavdžić, but she did not want to comment as she has been on sick leave for a long time. Rajković says there is no new information from Varteks, adding that CEO Bošnjak has asked employees for additional patience until the announced meeting of the Varteks Assembly scheduled for May 21, where, among other things, a decision on capital increase should be made.

If the Assembly approves the proposal, part of the money from the capital increase should be directed towards the payment of overdue salaries. As previously announced, the share capital would be increased by €100,004.76, bringing it to €401,605.92. A maximum of €2,500,004.16 should be paid for the capital increase, which means that in that case, the share capital would amount to €2,801,605.32. The price per share will be €10.44.

Sale of Real Estate?

However, the president of URSH claims that even that amount (€100,000) from the capital increase will not be enough and suggests selling real estate and directing part of the money towards salary payments and restarting production to stabilize the company’s operations. The question is whether the banks that have mortgages on those properties will agree to this. The same was suggested by the now former largest co-owner of Varteks Marko Vučijević, who disagreed with the decision to bring Jelena Bošnjak to the head of the company (in early March) and recently resigned from his position as a member of the Supervisory Board (as did Mato Matić).

After that, at the end of April, he also exited the ownership structure of the company by selling his 24.91% stake to Karla Ćorluka. Vučijević became the largest shareholder of Varteks in April 2023 by purchasing shares from Nenad Bakić, optimistically announcing that Varteks has a future. We tried to reach him, but he did not respond.

Additionally, Antonio Popić (14.92% stake) also sold his stake to Igor Mešić, who did not have shares in Varteks until then, thus Popić also exited the ownership structure of Varteks.

The workers’ strike, judging by what URSH president Rajković said, as well as by his tone during our conversation, suggests that this time the workers will not back down, as they did in early April when they suspended work for five days. Moreover, it is alleged that this morning CEO Bošnjak offered each worker €50 if they would withdraw from the strike, urging them to be patient until the capital increase. We asked Bošnjak about this, but have not received a response so far, and as things stand now, no worker has agreed to this.