Pursuant to the Rules and Regulations of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, d.d, and the relevant legislation, the company Poslovni sistem Mercator, d.d., hereby informs the shareholders and the public of the following:


Today, Mercator Group closed drawing of additional EUR 25 mn of the syndicated loan facility so the total amount of the syndicated facility reached EUR 130 mn. With this drawdown Mercator Group continued with the restructuring of short-term obligations into long-term financial commitment, while the company had no additional borrowing. Mercator Group drawdown a part of the syndicated loan already in 2010 and in January 2011, nonetheless two Austrian-based banks decided to join the syndicate in February 2011 which shows that the Mercator Group enjoys great trust and reputation in international financial markets.

In the syndicate participated Erste Group Bank AG, as arranger, bookrunner and documentation agent and Nova Ljubljanska banka, d.d. as agent and Abanka, d.d., Banka Sparkasse d.d., Erste Group Bank AG, Nova Ljubljanska banka, d.d., SKB, d.d., as Mandated Lead Arrangers and Banka Koper d.d., Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederoesterreich-Wien AG, Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberoesterreich AG and UniCredit Banka Slovenija d.d. as Arrangers and Gorenjska banka, d.d., as Participant.

The syndicated loan is taken out on unsecured basis, which is consistent with Mercator's financial policy that all lenders provide an equal position. The syndicated loan is divided into two tranches, namely tranche A with a maturity of three years and bullet repayment and the tranche B with a maturity of five years and half-yearly repayments of principal.


This announcement will be published on the company’s website at www.mercator.si as of March 16th 2011, and will remain posted for a period of at least five years.