Todoric selling his empire – Agrokor preparing for IPO at London Stock Exchange in 2017

Ivica Todoric’s concern Agrokor is preparing intensively for the initial public offering (IPO) which should take place at the London Stock Exchange in summer 2017, reports the Slovenian Finance Business Daily.

Allegedly, Todoric is considering selling the minority share to a single investor.

As well, it has not yet been decided whether the entire concern will be offered or only its food sector. The decision depends on the state of the market and the desirability of investors. In either case, Todoric would give up 49% of the stocks.

The food sector of Agrokor consist of the companies Agrolaguna, Dijamant, Frikom, Jamnica, Ledo, Mladina, PIK Vrbovec, PIK Vinkovci, Sarajevo Kiseljak, Solana Pag, Vupik and Zvijezda.

Finance reports that investors from the USA and the Middle and Far East, especially those from China, are interested in the companies.

The IPO of the entire Agrokor is less probable, as the consolidation of the trade sector, that is, Mercator and Konzum, has not yet been finished, the Slovenes estimate.

Let us remind that there’s been talk about the IPO of Agrokor for the past five years, ever since Todoric started trying intensively to take over Mercator. He finally managed to do so in June 2014, and the takeover was worth more than half a million euros.

In doing so, the concern got in debt through so-called PIK toggle bonds on the account of which more than 90% of Agrokor ownership was pledged. The maturity date is 2018. The conditions under which they were issued and the investors who bought them are not known. It is known only that the arranger was Deutsche Bank.

It is, however, clear that Ivica Todoric needs to make an IPO as soon as possible in order to prepare for the payment of the very risky loan.