$It is not enough to offer some basic products to be different,

everybody can do that,$ Čerin stressed, explaining that the company

would focus on the development of its network of self-service petrol

stations.

Touching on last year's acquisition of En Plus, Čerin said

that $we have taken over a company that has 18 self-service petrol

stations around Slovenia and we aim to expand the offer to locations where

we have big hypermarkets$.

Mercator will build its own petrol

stations in the vicinity of hypermarkets in Slovenia as well as other

markets where it is present, the head of strategic finances and risk

management at Mercator added.

Čerin moreover said that Mercator

would continue selling its real estate, planning to offload some EUR 500m

worth of buildings this and next year.

$The idea is to spend the

entire proceeds on paying off the debt,$ he explained. Mercator wants

to reduce its dependence on Slovenian banks with the move, Čerin

added.

According to him, Mercator, which has EUR 1.7m worth of real

estate in its portfolio, is an atypical retailer, owning 80% of the real

estate it uses.