Plodinec Family Creates a Competitor to Studenac by Transferring Shares to Čakovečki Mlinovi

The Plodinec family will become the majority owner of Čakovečki Mlinovi through the recapitalization of this Međimurje flour producer, and will also consolidate its retail operations. However, this will be achieved through a relatively rare method of recapitalization in shares and business stakes. The Zagreb Stock Exchange has announced a call for a shareholders’ meeting on January 15 next year, detailing how the increase in the share capital of Čakovečki Mlinovi will be carried out from 13.6 to 21.2 million euros. Firstly, the company Mlin i pekare, owned by the Plodinec family – which holds a 31 percent stake in Čakovečki Mlinovi – will contribute 100 percent ownership in the Sisak company NewMip. This company operates the Mlin i pekare retail chain, which has more than 250 stores in central and northwestern Croatia.

According to the call for the meeting, two stakes will be contributed, one worth 2,500 euros and the other worth 11.1 million euros. This will make Čakovečki Mlinovi the new owner of NewMip, and these two stakes in the recapitalization will be worth 3.8 million new shares of Čakovečki Mlinovi. Furthermore, Mlin i pekare will also transfer more than 117,000 shares of the company Zagrebačke pekarne Klara to Čakovečki Mlinovi. It is worth noting that Mlin i pekare holds more than 41 percent of the shares in this bakery company, while an additional 20 percent is held by the Plodinec company.

These shares, totaling 57,000 shares, will also be transferred to Čakovečki Mlinovi, making them the new majority owner of Zagrebačke pekarni Klara. The only representative of the family will be Dragica Plodinec, who owns just under a quarter of the shares in Klara. The transferred shares will be worth about two million new shares of Čakovečki Mlinovi, and a total of 5.8 million new shares will be issued through the contribution of rights.

Business Consolidation

The explanation states that in the takeover offer jointly submitted by Mlin i pekare and pension funds AZ and PBZ/Croatia osiguranje, it was indicated that a consolidation of the operations of MiP and Čakovečki Mlinovi is intended, including their affiliated companies, with the aim of increasing competitiveness and expanding operations in the relevant market, optimizing costs, and increasing the customer base along with planned business modernization.

– Therefore, the intention is to connect operations in the markets where both groups actively operate, namely in the areas of milling, baking, and retail, and to increase their competitiveness through such business synergy, expand their market presence, optimize costs, and increase the customer base along with planned business modernization, especially in the retail market – states the explanation.

As is known, in addition to the milling business, Čakovečki Mlinovi also has a retail segment consisting of the retail chains Trgovina Krk, Trgocentar Virovitica, and Radnik Opatija. Trgovina Krk has more than 440 stores, so through ownership consolidation, Čakovečki Mlinovi will control nearly 700 sales outlets. In terms of the total number of stores, they will be second in the market, behind Studenac.

In addition to the recapitalization, the shareholders’ meeting will also decide on the payment of dividends. A payment of more than five million euros from retained earnings from 2018, 2019, and 2020 is proposed. The dividend will amount to 49 cents per share and will be paid on January 30 to shareholders who will be registered in the depository on January 21. This is already the second dividend for Čakovečki Mlinovi in just three months. In September, shareholders were paid ten cents per share.