Miodrag Kostic interested in part of Mercator S – Serbia reacts well to Agrokor problems

The owner of MK Group, Miodrag Kostic, is interested in buying a part of the Mercator chain in Serbia from the head of Croatia's Agrokor, Ivica Todoric.

Kostic said in his interview for TV Slovenia 1 that he would be interested in purchasing a part of Mercator S if the Croatian businessman decided to sell a part of the store chain in order to repay the debts towards suppliers and banks.

As Kostic emphasized, his company is “seriously considering” buying a part of the Serbian Mercator.

– If such an opportunity presents itself, we will seriously take the purchase into consideration and it is almost certain that I'd be prepared to buy a share in Mercator S – he said.

Kostic added that “it's very good for Serbia to have reacted to Agrokor problems immediately”.

– In this case, Mercator S is not directly tied to Zagreb, but to Ljubljana, as Slovenia's Mercator owns and practically runs Mercator S. Therefore, it is much more important for us in Serbia how the Slovenian authorities will react in an effort to protect Mercator's interests in Slovenia as a separate system. Mercator S is an important company for Serbia, as it makes around a billion euros in revenues a year – Kostic said.

According to the official data published by Mercator S, the company owes about EUR 130 million to suppliers in Serbia and around EUR 135 million to banks. As Informer reports, Mercator S owes EUR 40 million to MK Group as a supplier, and the debt might be included in the sales and purchase arrangement.

MK Group d.o.o. Beograd

Fortenova grupa d.d.

Mercator-S d.o.o Beograd

MK Group

Agrokor

Mercator

Mercator S

Miodrag Kostic

Ivica Todoric

Agrokor operations

Mercator operations