Fortenova slashes debt since emerging from Agrokor restructuring
Since embarking on a new business strategy in 2019, complete with a number of divestitures and under its new identify, Zagreb-based Fortenova has cut debt to €650m ($757.1m) from as much as €2bn.
The business revealed the figures as it announced what it said is an 'important step in the further stabilisation and strengthening of its financial position'.
That involves the refinancing of €500m in debt with Zagrebačka bank and UniCredit Group, which will take effect from 1 October, according to a statement.
Fortenova added that since 2019 it has 'systematically been implementing its deleveraging strategy by divesting assets and increasing profitability, whereby it was able to significantly reduce its leverage'.
The group suggested its net-debt-to-EBITDA ratio is 'within the range that corresponds to investment [grade] credit rating'.
Agrokor was the largest consumer goods business in the Balkans until it was put into state-administration in 2017 amid huge debts and accusations of fraud by its founder Ivica Todoric.
Fabris Peruško was the head of the government-appointed Extraordinary Commission set up to oversee the recovery process post-Agrokor and he also then became CEO of Fortenova.
Commenting on the refinancing, Peruško said: 'Following the change in ownership and the exit of sanctioned shareholders from our structure, we were able to fully dedicate our attention to the business, to restructuring the operational and real estate portfolio and to implementing our vision of the group's future.
'I would like to thank Zagrebačka banka and UniCredit Group for the trust placed in us and look forward to our further collaboration.'
Fortenova now operates 29 production plants supplying food and drink products mainly to Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, and Bosnia & Herzegovina, according to its website.
In food, the company owns the Zvijezda edible oils, sauces and deli brands, along with the Pik Vrbovec line of fresh and processed meats. It is also present in spreads with Dijamant.
Roto forms an offering of soft and alcoholic drinks, along with the Sarajevski Kiseljak brand of mineral waters.
Fortenova also owns and operates retail chains with the likes of Mercator, Konzum and Tisak.
Earlier this year, Croatian alcoholic drinks group Badel 1862 struck a deal to acquire local wine, cheese and olive oil maker Agrolaguna, and the winery Vinarija Novigrad, from Fortenova.
Divestitures also included a clutch of food and drinks assets sold to fellow CPG business Podravka. The deal featured fruit and vegetables processor Pik-Vinkovci and grains wholesaler Felix.
Podravka also took over Belje, which produces wines, dairy products and cured meats.
Damir Spudić, Fortenova's CFO, added in the refinancing statement: 'Behind us there are numerous key operations - from the divestment of non-core parts of the group to a number of processes implemented to additionally consolidate and improve the business through operational restructuring and strengthening the cost efficiency of our companies.
'The result are growing revenues and operating profits in all our key segments. At the same time, we have set a clear strategic framework for the forthcoming development period, where our focus will be on retail, food and beverage production and distribution.'
According to Fortenova's website, the group generated revenue in 2023 of €5.9bn and adjusted EBITDA of €251m.
Just Food has asked the company for an update on more recent figures.
Meanwhile, the website says Fortenova acquired the local fruit- and vegetable-related businesses Enna Fruit and Naturala this year.
"Fortenova slashes debt since emerging from Agrokor restructuring" was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand.
The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Error al recuperar los datos
Inicia sesión para acceder a tu cartera de valores
Error al recuperar los datos
Error al recuperar los datos
Error al recuperar los datos
Error al recuperar los datos
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
28 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
UniCredit Becomes Second EU Bank With €100 Billion Valuation
UniCredit SpA became the second European Union lender to be valued at more than €100 billion ($115 billion) this year after a long recovery in the region's financial stocks. The Italian bank's share price rose as much as 2.3% on Wednesday to the highest since February 2011, pushing its market capitalization to around €100.2 billion. That places the firm just behind Banco Santander SA, which has a market value of about €114 billion.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Should You Forget Intel and Buy These 2 Tech Stocks Instead?
Key Points Intel is undergoing a large restructuring under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan. AMD continues to take market share from Intel in the PC segment. TSMC has become the world's dominant chip manufacturer. 10 stocks we like better than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing › Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) may be unrivaled in the tech sector in its underperformance in recent history. Over the last 10 years, the stock is down 26% even as many of its semiconductor peers and the "Magnificent Seven" have delivered monster returns. Intel's recent earnings report highlighted the company's multiple challenges as new CEO Lip-Bu Tan has embarked on a massive right-sizing campaign. The company has already laid off 15% of its workforce. It's spinning off its networking and edge business, turning Intel into a stand-alone company that can take on outside investment. It's also taken more impairments for equipment that's no longer useful. That's all part of Tan's strategy of refocusing the business on core priorities like AI, its x86 CPU franchise, and the launch of a foundry for its 18A process. Some investors continue to bet on Intel's eventual turnaround, but the latest report shows that's likely to take longer than investors had hoped. Instead of buying Intel, investors are better off buying these two stocks that are capitalizing on the company's struggles. 1. Advanced Micro Devices While Intel has struggled over the last decade, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) has emerged as a winner, grabbing market share from Intel in the PC-focused client segment. It's also proven itself to be more nimble, shedding its foundry business to become a fabless designer, and it's emerged as the closest challenger to Nvidia in AI graphics processing units (GPUs), though it's a distant second behind the leader. AMD has made several acquisitions of start-ups in AI to bolster its product offerings and make it more competitive. AMD is also growing much faster than Intel, showing it's capitalizing on the AI boom. It hasn't reported second-quarter results yet, but in its first quarter, revenue rose 36% to $7.44 billion, driven by its success in both the data center, where revenue jumped 57% to $3.7 billion, and in the client segment, where revenue jumped 68% to $2.3 billion on the strength of its Zen 5 Ryzen processors. By contrast, Intel reported a 3% revenue decline in its client segment to $7.9 billion. As those numbers show, Intel is still the leader in PC chips, but AMD is rapidly gaining market share. The client segment is also Intel's biggest, making up nearly half of its revenue before intersegment eliminations. Finally, AMD is in a strong position because it has healthy franchises in both central processing units (CPUs) and GPUs, which should benefit it in the AI era. 2. TSMC In the foundry business, Intel's primary competitor is TSMC (NYSE: TSM), or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. In fact, it's not a close competition at this point as Taiwan Semiconductor makes up more than half of the contract chips in the world and roughly 90% of advanced chip production in the world, even manufacturing advanced chips for Intel. Intel has aspirations of challenging TSMC in the contract business, but at this point, the legacy chip maker is far behind, and it will take years for that strategy to materialize. In the meantime, Taiwan Semiconductor continues to post blistering growth. In Q2, it reported 44.4% revenue growth in U.S. dollars to $30.1 billion, and profits have soared as well, as earnings per share jumped 60.1% to $2.47. Thanks to its dominance of the contract foundry business and relationships with tech giants like Nvidia and Apple, TSMC enjoys huge operating margins, which came in at 49.6% in Q2. By comparison, Intel is struggling to turn a profit. TSMC now makes most of its revenue from advanced chips, which it defines as 7 nanometers (7nm) or less. That strength in advanced chips also positions it to continue to take advantage of growth in AI. Considering its growth rate, TSMC's valuation also looks attractive at a price-to-earnings ratio of 29. As rivals like Intel and Samsung have faltered, TSMC's leadership position has become even more dominant. The stock looks set to continue being a winner. Should you buy stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing right now? Before you buy stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $630,291!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,075,791!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,039% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025 Jeremy Bowman has positions in Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Intel, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Should You Forget Intel and Buy These 2 Tech Stocks Instead? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
Which is better now: A debt relief program or bankruptcy? Experts weigh in
Many people struggle with debt. And thanks to high interest rates, rising costs of living, and other challenging financial conditions, that debt can be particularly hard to get out of these days. "It's always tough when it comes to getting out of debt," says Wheeler Pulliam, a certified financial planner and financial consultant at Xponify Financial. "It's even tougher to try and figure out the right way to go about it." If you're having trouble getting out from under debt, debt relief or even bankruptcy may be able to help, but they aren't for everyone. Here's what to know about these options and when one might be the right move for you. Find out what debt relief options are available to help you now. Debt relief can come in many forms. First, there's debt consolidation, in which you take out a loan with a lower interest rate, and then use that to pay off all your debts — rolling them all into one payment. "These types of programs make the most sense for normal, everyday Americans who have accumulated a lot of different debt over time through credit cards and the like," Pulliam says. "They help simplify what the debt is and how to best pay it off, usually by just having to make one payment a month instead of trying to manage several different ones." There are also debt management plans, which put the actual payment of your debts in the hands of a debt relief company or credit professional. "It offers a structured repayment plan, often facilitated through credit counseling agencies," says Jen Leisey, product manager of consumer lending at Georgia's Own Credit Union. "The agencies contact creditors on the consumer's behalf to possibly reduce interest rates, waive any accumulated fees, or adjust terms. Once new repayment terms have been established with the individual creditors, the agency will collect a single, monthly payment from the consumer and distribute the funds to the creditors under the newly established terms." Debt settlement is another option, usually for those dealing with particularly large debts. This is when you negotiate with your creditors to pay off your debts with a lump-sum payment that's less than what you actually owe. The big downsides of debt relief are that it comes with fees — usually a percentage of what the debt relief company saved you or a flat fee for services — and it can take a while. According to Leisey, a debt management plan can take up to five years to complete. Your credit can also take a hit, particularly with debt settlement. "This option would have the greatest negative impact on the consumer's credit score," Leisey says. "Settlement companies may also charge 15% to 20% of the total debt for negotiation and servicing of the settlement." Learn more about how the right debt relief strategy could help you today. Bankruptcy is another option if you have lots of debt, and, like debt relief, there are multiple options. First, there's Chapter 7. This "is the most common for individuals who don't make a lot of money but have a large amount of debt," Pulliam says. "Typically, they don't have a realistic way of paying it off. It wipes out most of your debt, with certain exceptions, and allows you to start over, so to speak." With Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you get most of your debts wiped clean, but must sell off certain assets in the process — things like non-essential vehicles, property or collectibles. With Chapter 13, you will only get to discharge some debts, though you won't have to sell any assets. You will also need to get on a court-approved repayment plan that lasts three to five years. "Chapter 13 is the type of bankruptcy you usually see businesses go through," Pulliam says. "It has to do more with reorganizing your debt, than total debt forgiveness, allowing for recovery over time." There are two big drawbacks to choosing bankruptcy, though: The fees and the credit hit it comes with. "What most people don't realize is that it can cost thousands of dollars to go bankrupt," says Howard Dvorkin, chairman of "It's a court proceeding, and you need to hire a lawyer and pay filing fees." Bankruptcy can also stay on your credit report for seven to 10 years. That could impact your ability to get future loans, credit cards and other financial products during that time. Both bankruptcy and debt relief can help you tackle your debt problems, but you'll need to decide which is best for your unique situation. If you want a faster solution, bankruptcy is typically the better choice, Wheeler says, with the entire process taking only about three to six months. The tradeoff is the credit impact. "It makes it harder to secure loans in the future, especially at any decent rate," Wheeler says. Given today's already-high interest rates, this is a notable drawback to consider, particularly if you think you may need to borrow money at any point in the near future. Debt relief will usually have a lighter credit impact (or could even help your credit, in the case of a debt management plan, but it takes a long time and comes with fees. "You should consider your short- and long-term goals, the potential costs and impact on your credit score offered by each option, and the potential changes to your quality of life," Leisey says. "Are reduced collection calls and anxiety related to your finances in exchange for a reduction in available credit options and increased interest rates worth it to you? Do you have the discipline to complete a debt management plan or Chapter 13 repayment plan, or do you need the 'out' provided through debt settlement or Chapter 7?" This sort of "realistic self-assessment" can help you come to the right solution, but if you're still not sure, talk to a credit counselor, debt relief professional or financial advisor. They'll help you determine what's best for your unique situation. As Dvorkin advises, "Don't go it alone." Whether you pursue debt relief or file for bankruptcy, the path out of debt is rarely easy, but it is possible with the right strategy and support. By weighing the pros, cons and long-term implications of each option, and getting expert guidance when needed, you can make a confident decision that puts you on a stronger financial footing.
