Agrokor Case: The Recent Past and The Uncertain Future of The Big Agribusiness Conglomerate In Croatia

Abstract

The leading agribusiness group Agrokor is one of the biggest in Croatia today with respect to number of integrated companies, employees, and revenues. Its constant growth was based on acquisitions and mainly financed through borrowing. Although questions about Agrokor indebtedness were raised occasionally, the first time the problem was taken seriously was in 2017. Hence, the special national law was adopted according to which Extraordinary Administration and government commissioners were appointed with the role to maintain day-to-day activities, and conduct settlement procedure and restructuring. The objective of this paper is to determine the nature of unfocused growth of Agrokor and its consequences on the business results. For that purpose, financial analysis of main Agrokor member companies was performed. The results reveal decrement in revenues, and increment in costs for the period 2012-2016, which caused lowering of profitability and rise of indebtedness. Altman Z-score showed that all companies are one step to bankruptcy. Furthermore, the main idea is to determine supply chain models through which the company is embedded in the national agribusiness.