Having already sold ten Slovenian shopping centres to Austrian developer Supernova last year, Mercator is now selling its Koper mall, four properties in Croatia, six in Bosnia-Herzegovina and two in Serbia, Dnevnik reported on Friday.

All the properties are being sold under the leaseback principle, which means that Mercator will remain tenant in the properties it currently owns.

The company had a financial debt of roughly EUR 667 million at the end of March, down EUR 148 million from the year before.

CEO Tomislav Čizmić told Dnevnik the goal was to reduce debt to roughly four-times EBITDA, which stood at EUR 107.5 million last year.

This will also make it fit to launch major investments, in particular in a logistics and distribution centre in Ljubljana and new logistics facilities in Serbia, he said.

The retailer is currently owned by bankrupt Croatian conglomerate Agrokor but is expected to be transferred to Fortenova, the company onto which healthy Agrokor assets are being shifted, by the end of the year.