Slovenia's securities agency ATVP confirmed on Tuesday that it received Agrokor's reply to the questions it put to the Croatian concern as part of supervising the possible takeover of Slovenia's Mercator store chain, while Slovenian media report that Agrokor president Ivica Todoric has replied that Agrokor has not reached any agreement with Mercator's shareholders, that it is not buying Mercator stock on the market, and that no Agrokor body has made a decision on a takeover offer.
ATVP told press it received the reply today, but would not comment on the Slovenian media reports or what would happen next.
The reply was also carried by the Slovenian news agency STA, which stressed that Todoric said he had no agreement to buy Mercator stock with anyone and that there was no agreement between Agrokor and Nova Ljubljanska Banka or Pivovarna Lasko or UniCredit bank on Mercator stock, or any agreement with them on a price at which Agrokor would be willing to take over the store chain.
According to Slovenian media, Todoric also said in the reply that Agrokor neither owned nor was buying nor influencing the price of Mercator shares.
On Monday, Agrokor was still considering the possibility of buying the 23.34 per cent of Mercator stock owned by Pivovarna Lasko brewery, but no decision has been made, the media said.
In his reply, Todoric said that even if Agrokor decided to submit an offer for the brewery's interest in Mercator, the offer would refer only to this stock and not all Mercator shares.
Slovenia's Dnevnik daily was the first to report that Agrokor is interested in Pivovarna Lasko's shares in Mercator, claiming that Agrokor's secret intention is to take over Mercator's entire stock.
