Agrokor crisis manager Fabris Peruško gathered CEOs of all daughter companies of the debt-ridden food conglomerate in order to discuss the methodology used to prepare and authorise their annual financial reports, asking them to include intercompany loan guarantees in their company balances.

N1 has obtained a document produced by a well known consultancy which suggests that CEOs should include more than 19 billion kuna (€2.5 billion) of intercompany loan guarantees in their company balances, although it is still unclear whether individual companies should recognise these guarantees, considering the dubious circumstances in which loan contracts between Agrokor sister companies were made.

The CEOs will also be asked to include interests on their companies’ debts in their reports, in spite the fact that debts and interests are yet to be discussed in the ongoing negotiations with creditors and suppliers. Companies will also be asked to reduce the estimated worth of their mutual liabilities.

This new approach might result in worsened company balances and open the way to create new twin companies that could take over healthy parts of the original companies businesses, while original companies would be left with liabilities, sending them towards bankruptcy proceedings and liquidation.

Small shareholders of Agrokor have been vocally opposed to this approach for some time now in Croatian courts, but according to reports company CEOs are not too keen on it either, probably out of fears that they might be held criminally liable in case they sign such financial reports.

Fabris Peruško, in today’s meeting, intends to discuss and convince companies to prepare balances and financial reports according to the methodology suggested in the reports prepared by the consultancy and obtained by N1 from sources inside the Agrokor conglomerate.

A section of the document also says that after the agreement with creditors and suppliers is reached, significant changes in management of Agrokor woud come into place.

“In that case, the new holding company would undertake mergers to transfer businesses to new legal entities in cases of corporate insolvencies. It is our understanding that the plan involves liquidating old insolvent companies after businesses have been transferred to these new companies.”

Law stipulates that financial reports of individual companies must be submitted by April 30.