Croatia

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tomislav Pili writes, Russian bankruptcy, which is increasingly likely to occur soon, will not be felt by the Croatian financial system, and global finances should not be shaken by such a scenario either, according to Croatian analysts, Croatia News reported. After announcing on Monday that the Russian Ministry of Finance will pay out interest to foreign investors in rubles instead of dollars, the story coming out of Moscow altered Russia's state treasury has announced an order has been sent to pay 117.2 million U.S.

Croatia prepared on Friday to rush through new legislation to protect the economy from big corporate failures, as the country‘s biggest private company Agrokor tried to secure a debt restructuring deal, the Stock Daily Dish reported. Some local media reported on Friday that Agrokor had signed a deal with creditors overnight to restructure its debt, but the company declined comment and there was no confirmation from its creditors.

Croatian food group Fortenova Grupa, formerly known as Agrokor, said on Wednesday it had put four units, including two tourism agencies, up for sale as it starts to divest non-core assets, Reuters reported. The other companies are a construction firm and a soybean storage and processing company. “We offer for sale two major tourist agencies in southeastern Europe, Atlas and Kompas. They control 20% of the markets in Croatia and Slovenia and more than 15% in Montenegro. Combined they serve some 1.2 million travellers a year,” Fortenova said in a statement.

Croatian food company Fortenova Grupa, the Balkan region’s biggest firm by sales, said on Friday that more than 80% of its shareholders had supported the issuance of a four-year bond worth up to 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion), Reuters reported. The bond is aimed at financing a 1.1 billion euro liquidity loan the firm, formerly known as Agrokor, took two years ago to avoid bankruptcy, the company said in a statement. That followed an expansion drive based on high and expensive debt.

Croatian food company Fortenova Grupa, the Balkan region’s biggest firm by sales, is preparing to issue a four-year bond worth up to 1.2 billion euros ($1.35 billion), it said on Friday, Reuters reported. The bond is aimed at financing a 1.1 billion euro liquidity loan the firm, formerly known as Agrokor, took out two years ago to avoid bankruptcy, it said in a statement. That followed an expansion drive based on high and expensive debt. “The interest rate will be 7.3% plus Euribor,” Fortenova said.

Croatia’s ailing shipyard in the northern Adriatic city of Pula was placed into bankruptcy by a commercial court on Monday after an almost year-long effort to keep it afloat, Reuters reported. The shipyard belongs to Uljanik, Croatia’s largest shipbuilding group, which also owns another troubled dock in the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka. A decision on the shipyard in Rijeka is scheduled for June 5. The Pula shipyard has an outstanding debt of 164.8 million kuna ($25 million). Local media reported that it has 1,118 workers left who will now lose their jobs.

A delegation from a leading Chinese shipbuilding company has arrived in Croatia for talks about a possible investment in the country’s largest shipbuilder Uljanik, which is struggling to avoid bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Officials from the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) met Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and his economic team on Monday and will visit Uljanik’s docks in the northern Adriatic later this week. “After the visit to the docks we will give full and serious consideration to this matter,” CSIC’s Chief Executive Hu Wenming told reporters.