Slovenian daily on a new possible merger of Croatian, Slovene retailers
The merger of the two retailers is being insisted on by their creditors, notably the Italian banking group Intesa Sao Paolo.
Both Tus and Plodine have declined to comment on their possible merger, Dnevnik said.
A possible merger would enable the two retail chains to compete more easily with Agrokor because together they would have more than 130 supermarkets and an annual turnover of one billion Euro and employ more than 6,000 people.
According to Dnevnik, a merger of the two retailers would be part of preparations for the sale of the new retail group to a leading European retailer.
Italy's biggest retail chain Coop, whose annual revenues exceed 13 billion Euro, is being mentioned as the likeliest future strategic partner.
Such an outcome would be primarily in the interest of banks which have been worried lately about a drop in Tus's domestic sales and market share.
Unlike Tus, Plodine's status and results on the Croatian market are good. In 2013, the company's revenues were 3.26 billion kuna, however, its debt in recent years has been exceeding 220 million Euro, posing a burden on its operations and development, Dnevnik said.
(EUR 1 = HRK 7.627060)
source: dalje.com
