The decision by the Slovenian AVK regulator to temporarily seize the shares of Mercator is a bigger problem for Slovenia than for Croatia, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday, recalling that the regulator's ruling was non-final.

The Fortenova Group, which is the successor to Agrokor, stated on Wednesday that the Slovenian AVK regulator had temporarily seized the shares of Mercator, which is part of this Zagreb-based group, criticising the Slovenian authorities for a disproportionate and unfounded penalty. In September AVK imposed this penalty on Agrokor over its failure to report concentration of Agrokor AG and Ardey Global Ltd.

“I think that this is a serious problem for Slovenia itself, as this decision is outside any frameworks and practices,” Plenkovic said in Rome where he was attending a summit meeting of the Central European Initiative.

The topic of Agrokor’s penalty was on the agenda of Plenkovic’s talks with Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister on the margins of the CEI meeting.

Fortenova underlined in its press release that “the seizure of Mercator shares is in itself also largely disproportionate, since the shares in question have an appraised value of in excess of EUR 140 million, and the appealable penalty – that is being contested – is in the amount of EUR 53.9 million,” says the group.

Plenkovic today recalled that the process would take some time, adding that the problem for which the penalty had been imposed stemmed from 2016, before the Emergency Administration was appointed to run the debt-ridden Agrokor at the time.