Eleven leading stakeholders in Slovenia's biggest retailer Mercator, who hold 50.03 percent of the company's stock, signed an agreement on Wednesday under which by the end of the year they would sell together their shares in Mercator in an international tender offer.
The agreement was signed by Abanka, Banka Celje, Gorenjska Banka, Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, the investment fund NFD 1, NFD Holding, Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor, Nova Ljubljanska Banka, the breweries Pivovarna Lasko and Pivovarna Union, and the beverages producer Radenska.
The head of the Ljubljana-based SKB bank, Cvetka Selsek, who coordinated efforts over the last three months to form a joint package of Mercator shares for sale, told Slovenian Television that this was the most serious attempt to sell Mercator so far.
A sale consultant is expected to be chosen in the next 45 days, and after a tender offer is published and bids are submitted, Mercator is expected to be sold by the end of the year.
It is expected that bids for the purchase of the biggest Slovenian retailer will be submitted by foreign institutional buyers or some western European retail chains such as Carfour. It is not ruled out that Croatia's concern Agrokor will again submit an offer. In the last tender offer, Agrokor offered 221 euros per share for Pivovarna Lasko's 23-percent interest in Mercator, according to Slovenian media.
Selsek, however, warned that the price Agrokor offered at the time was to a certain extent speculative and that it referred to the 23-percent stake and not the majority stake.
