The meeting came just days before the expiry of Agrokor's bid for the remaining 47% stake in Mercator after the Croatian food group acquired 53% in June and after the supervisory board headed by Lahovnik stepped down at the beginning of this month.

Lahovnik will stay on and is being joined by Agrokor managers Damir Kuštrak, Ante Todorić, Ivan Crnjac, the CEO of Agrokor's grocer subsidiary Konzum Darko Knez, and the president of the Croatian Employers' Association Ivica Mudrinić.

Meeting after the shareholders' meeting, the new supervisors elected Ante Todorić as new chief supervisor and Lahovnik as his deputy.

The supervisory board also gave its stamp of approval for integration of operations of Mercator and Agrokor in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, valid and applicable once the Security Market Agency has found Agrokor's takeover bid successful.

The shareholders' meeting moreover brought a discharge of liability for 2013 for the supervisors and for the management led by Toni Balažič and changes to the statute that will allow representatives of creditor banks to attend meetings of the supervisory board.

While the fate of the management is in the hands of the new supervisory board, Balažič told reporters that the new owner had expressed interest in his team to stay on.

The chairman said the focus for the future to be on returning Mercator to profit, but he would not make any projections (consolidated net loss amounted to EUR 16.9m in 2013, down from EUR 104m in 2012),

But he said an improvement in the company's finances and ownership stabilisation would enable it to create synergies in merchandise purchase, one of the main obstacles to breaking even so far.

He expects positive effects of the takeover for customers as early as this year, reflecting in lower prices as well as better range and offer of local and regional products.

Agrokor paid just over EUR 172m for a 53.12% stake in Mercator held by a consortium headed by brewer Pivovarna Laško in a deal closed on 27 June. It then went on to publish a takeover bid offering EUR 86 per share, which values the outstanding stake at EUR 152m.

Under a debt restructuring deal with creditor banks, the Croatian food group also secured Mercator a subordinate loan of EUR 220m for recapitalisation and working capital.

After the shareholders' meeting, representatives of small shareholders disagreed as to whether Agrokor will manage to increase its stake to over 90%, which would enable it to squeeze out the remaining shareholders.

Rajko Stanković of MDS said his information indicated more than a half of 11,000 small shareholders had accepted the takeover bid, so he expects their share to fall below 10%.

Meanwhile, Kristjan Verbič of VZMD does not expect Agrokor to acquire more than 90%, but like Stanković he underscored that even in the case of a squeeze-out Agrokor would have to guarantee to the shareholders the takeover price of EUR 86 per share at least for a year.

Mercator generated EUR 1.3bn in half-year sales revenue, a 4% drop compared to the same period a year ago, with operating profit at EUR 11.8m, up 4%.