Despite the steep loss, CEO Tomislav Čizmić remains buoyant, stressing that the company is stable and has been gaining market share, which will be crucial as the Agrokor story unfolds.

The figures released in the belated annual report, confirm long-running speculations that Mercator would be deep in the red, but unofficial reports had indicated the loss would be in the range of EUR 50m, compared to a EUR 20m profit in 2015.

At EUR 46m, impairments of claims to companies in the Agrokor group had the biggest impact on operations. Most of the claims stem from unpaid rent for stores in Bosnia that are owned by Mercator but managed by Agrokor's second retail arm, Konzum.

When Konzum took over and rebranded the stores, many consumers switched allegiance, in particular in the Serbian entity, the Republic of Srpska, Slovenian daily "Dnevnik" has reported.

Čizmić stressed  that despite the woes of its parent group Agrokor, Mercator was independent in all key business decisions and its outstanding liabilities to banks would be independent of Agrokor's liabilities.

He said the management was predicating its actions on the company's continued stability. "Mercator has the knowledge and the track record, and it is ready for a variety of scenarios. I do not know today what these scenarios will be. It's important to be ready."

At the same time the company has been improving profitability and market share. "Given that Mercator is operating normally and developing, we will be an active partner in future scenarios," he said.

Asked about the overdue claims to Agrokor, Čizmić said efforts were being made to recover the debt but it was too early to say when and to what extent.

Sales and the bottom line were also affected by temporary store closures for refurbishment, which had a negative financial impact but will improve the company's competitiveness in the long term. Investments totalled about EUR 90m last year.

The sales dropped 4% on Mercator's core Slovenian market, 6.5% in Serbia, 9.3% in Croatia and 3.7% in Bosnia-Herzegovina, largely due to the divestment of non-core assets such as apparel chain Modiana, a tour operator and a major bakery Mercator had owned.

The like-for-like comparison of continued operations, which takes into account the disposal of assets, shows revenue dropping 3.8% to EUR 2.37bn, net profit declining to EUR 78m and EBITDA plunging by 74% to EUR 33.3m.

The company however reduced its total debt by EUR 44m to about EUR 805m.

The financials were released just a day after the National Assembly adopted a law known as Lex Mercator that allows the government to appoint a crisis manager in Mercator to check its deals with the parent company, in an attempt to prevent the diversion of funds.

Čizmić said he understood the concern of the authorities and supported the law if this meant extra protection for the company.

Prime Minister Miro Cerar meanwhile told "Primorske novice", a regional paper, that the economy minister was close to picking the crisis manager.

In response the Economy Ministry said it planned to complete the appointment soon after the law entered into force. This means after its release in the Official Gazette.

It was also revealed today that two members of Mercator's supervisory board appointed by Agrokor, chairman Ante Todorić and member Ivan Crnjac, stepped down. Čizmić would not comment on their resignation. He said this was a matter for supervisors and shareholders, not management.