Sberbank acquires 18.5% stake in Slovenian retailer Mercator for debt of Agrokor
(technical repeat)
MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - Sberbank acquired 18.53% of shares in Poslovni Sistem Mercator d.d., a major Slovenian retailer, at a public auction on Friday, the Russian lender said.
The starting price was set at 40.580 million euros.
"Sberbank fully realizes the key role of Mercator for the economy of Slovenia and will act in the best interests of the company," the bank said.
Mercator shares were pledged as collateral in a loan agreement between Sberbank and Croatian retailer Agrokor, Bloomberg reported.
Earlier on Friday Sberbank said it had fully provisioned for a loan extended to a major international retailer, but did not name the borrower. In addition, the bank attributed an increase in overdue debt in June to a portion of the debt of an international retailer being reclassified as overdue by more than one day.
