Fortenova Group Becomes Sole Owner of Mercator

With the completion of the process of squeezing out minority shareholders from the ownership of Mercator, Fortenova Group has become the 100% owner of that retail chain, the company announced today.

– With this last transaction we have completed the acquisition process that started back in 2014. It was a long-lasting and challenging process, with lots of intermediate legal and financial steps that were all leading to one and the same goal, forming the leading regional grocery retail chain – said Fabris Peruško, Fortenova Group’s Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors on the occasion of acquiring the 100% ownership share in Mercator.

He also pointed out that Mercator is the leading grocery retailer in Slovenia, with significant shares in Serbia and Montenegro, and Konzum is the leading grocery retail chain in Croatia whilst both Konzum and Mercator have a significant combined share in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

– The synergies available to Konzum and Mercator by working together as part of the region’s largest retail group are numerous, which provides leverage for further strengthening our leading positions on the markets – Peruško said.

James Pearson, Fortenova Group’s CFO, said that the payment to minorities of EUR 22.4 million was made using Fortenova’s own internal cash

Fortenova grupa d.d.

Poslovni sistem Mercator d.d. Ljubljana

Fortenova Group

Mercator

Fabris Peruško

James Pearson

shares

share squeeze out

consumer goods retail chain