LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), July 2 (SeeNews) – Slovenian retailer Mercator [LJE:MELR] said on Tuesday it has completed the refinancing for an 80 million euro ($89.2 million) super-senior facility arrangement with VTB Bank Europe, part of Russian financial group VTB.
The signing of the refinancing contract ensures the foundations for completion of financial consolidation, and especially the funds for a new development cycle that will be based on the investment into the new logistics centre in Ljubljana, the retailer said in a filing to the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
In addition to deleveraging and improved credit rating, confidence in the Mercator group continues to improve, it added.
In late May, Mercator group and VTB signed the contract documentation for refinancing of the Mercator group's super-senior facility.
“After the completion of a very successful first stage of Mercator Group's comprehensive restructuring, which included stabilization of operations, value creation plan, a new marketing strategy, and re-entry to the market of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mercator is today successfully executing further key steps towards the attainment of all strategic goals,” the company said.
Mercator returned to the Bosnian market in October 2017 last year after a three-year absence.
In the recent period, Mercator considerably increased its EBITDA and revenue, as well as significantly deleveraged through successful monetization projects, the retailer noted, without quoting figures.
In May, Mercator said it turned to a consolidated net loss of 3.7 million euro in the first quarter of 2019, from a net profit of 1.9 million euro in the prior-year period.
The Mercator group's EBITDA totalled 39.8 million euro in the January-March period; in the equivalent period of the preceding year EBITDA amounted to 25.8 million euro, according to restated data.
($=0.8832 euro)