Croatia’s High Commercial Court approved a settlement deal for indebted food and retail giant Agrokor on October 26, the company said.

According to the deal, the biggest shareholder in the new Agrokor will be Russia’s Sberbank with a 39.2% stake, while bond holders will have a 24.9% stake. Another Russian bank, VTB, will hold 7.5% in the new company, while local bank Zagrebacka Bank will have a 2.3% stake.

Agrokor, which employs around 60,000 people in the region, is undergoing restructuring after a debt crisis pushed it to the brink of collapse last year. The government stepped in and appointed an emergency manager.

The debt settlement deal was reached in July. However, some creditors lodged appeals.

“The High Commercial Court assessed that no significant violations were committed of either the procedure or of the subject matter as pointed at by individual creditors – appellants, neither in the procedure that preceded the passing of the ruling which confirmed the settlement plan nor in the adoption of the settlement plan itself,” Agrokor said in a statement.

All 87 appeals submitted to the commercial court were either refused or dismissed, Agrokor’s state-appointed extraordinary commissioner Fabris Perusko said.

“As of today the most important assumption/condition precedent for the commencement of the settlement plan implementation has been met, a large and demanding project which will take place over the course of the next few months. The process of transferring business operations to the new group is very complex and contains very many steps, as our calculations show – more than 100,000 of them,” Irena Weber, deputy extraordinary commissioner, said.

The restructuring of Agrokor has become highly politicised. Former deputy prime minister and economy minister Martina Dalic resigned on May 14, following the leaking of her email correspondence showing an alleged conflict of interest in the restructuring of Agrokor. This followed the resignation of the group's original emergency manager Ante Ramljak, also over accusations of conflict of interest. 

On October 25, a London court ruled that Agrokor’s founder, Ivica Todoric, will be extradited to Croatia to stand trial. Todoric is being investigated in relation to financial irregularities uncovered at the group after it entered restructuring. He was arrested in London in November last year and released on a £100,000 bail.