Deputy emergency manager in the Agrokor company Irena Weber talked on Thursday about the next steps in the process of restructuring of the indebted company, after the debt-for-equity settlement deal was passed in a creditors’ vote at the Zagreb Commercial Court yesterday.

“The settlement passed yesterday with a very strong majority of 80.2 percent, which is very important to us because it sends a strong message on the settlement process and the quality of work,” Weber said to the RTL broadcaster.

She added that the administration was now looking to the future of the company.

“This means increasing profits, profitability and efficiency, because this is the only way our future owners, and current creditors, can get returns on their claims,” Weber said.

Under the provisions of the settlement deal, Russian Sberbank would own the most shares, 39.2 percent, after the company’s restructuring. Along with another Russian bank, VTB (7.5 percent), and Zagrebacka Banka (2.3 percent), it will own nearly three quarters of total shares in Agrokor. The process of implementing the settlement deal is expected to last between three and four months.

“Our future owners are international financial institutions with access to a lot of serious markets. The focus will be, on the one hand, to increase export and profits, which is important in the profit and loss balance, and then, through optimising contracts with our partners and business subjects, we will work on increasing profitability. On the other hand, we have to internally work in the efficiency of business itself,” Weber said.

She added that the future owners are not planning to sell their stakes in the company, but to work on increasing its value.

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