The deal of the century, in which Croatia's Agrokor concern would buy more than half of Slovenia's biggest retail chain, Mercator, from a consortium dominated by Slovenian banks, will probably come to nothing, although the Pivovarna Lasko brewery, which holds a 23.34 per cent stake in the chain, is to take a position on Agrokor's bid on Friday, Slovenian media said on Thursday.
Finance said Agrokor would not extend its non-binding offer of 221 euros per share and that the current offer is open until the end of the year, while Delo openly said politics had stopped the signing of an already agreed contract between Agrokor and the consortium led by Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB).
By pressuring the NLB, which has prompted its director Boto Jasovic to resign, Finance Minister Franci Krizanic and outgoing Prime Minister Borut Pahor's team have trampled the strategy the bank adopted to solve its difficult financial position by selling its 10.75 per cent stake in Mercator, the Ljubljana-based Delo said.
However, the disinvestment strategy was the right one, since the shares are not part of the banks' core business but reduce their credit activity, added the leading national daily.
Although claiming that the "original sin" behind Mercator's problematic ownership structure was the sale of state-owned shares to "fallen" tycoons Bosko Srot and Igor Bavcar a few years ago, under the Janez Jansa cabinet, Delo cited a Slovenian economist as saying that the Pahor cabinet was also to blame for the current situation, having put pressure on the state-owned NLB, which prompted its director to resign since he "didn't want to give in to political orders."
"When the crisis in Slovenia and the world is escalating and before the arrival of the new government, the NLB has once again been abused as a victim of the 'we'll manage somehow' policy," said Delo.
Pivovarna Lasko was to adopt a decision on the draft contract with Agrokor on Friday but the parastate fund KAD, which owns seven per cent of the brewery, has asked that the shareholders' assembly meet to discuss the KAD's proposal that the brewery's borrowing problems be solved through the issue of new shares and that the negotiations held with Agrokor to date be discussed.
Finance said that after a plunge on Wednesday, Mercator's stock today recorded a new historical decline of 7.89 per cent, selling at 140 euros per share, the lowest price in three years.
Asked to comment on media reports, Agrokor said it had not given up the plan to buy Mercator and that it would not give statements while the process was under way.
