March 7 (SeeNews) - Croatia's ailing Agrokor concern said it forecasts an EBITDA of approximately 254 million euro ($315.6 million) in 2017 at the group level, including Slovenia's retailer Mercator, up 12.4% on the year.
The results exclude the parent company of the Agrokor Group, Agrokor d.d., and Agrokor Portfolio Holdings (APH).
Agrokor expects its EBITDA to rise to 334 million euro in 2018, before reaching 434 million euro in 2021, the food-to-retail concern said in a report late on Tuesday.
A majority of the 2017 EBITDA is expected to be generated by the food business, or 142 million euro of the total, while retail is expected to contribute 72 million euro, and the agri business 40 million euro.
Agrokor's revenue is predicted to have fallen to 5.8 billion euro in 2017, from 6.6 billion euro a year earlier. Revenue is expected to recover slightly to 5.83 billion euro in 2018, before rising to 6.3 billion euro in 2021.
Agrokor, which employs some 60,000 people throughout the region, was put under state-run crisis management in April last year after it hit serious financial problems.
Agrokor's management plans to sell assets belonging to APH.
APH includes 80 legal entities, of which 41 entities (16 businesses) are operating in various industries in the Adria region, including market-leading businesses in advertising, travel and salt production; 23 entities containing a mix of physical assets (predominantly real estate) and financial assets (predominantly deferred consideration for company sales); 16 are shell companies. APH also holds a portfolio of 201 real estate assets and two movables.
($=0.804731 euro)