Croatian retailer Agrokor has dropped its bid to acquire a controlling stake in Slovenian rival Mercator.

In a move that looks set to end the long-running negotiations over the possible acquisition, Agrokor revealed it had failed to agree on the terms of a deal.

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Agrokor, which had seen a non-binding offer accepted by Mercator’s majority shareholders, had been looking to acquire a 52.1% stake in the retailer and exclusive talks started in November.

“The protracted course of the process so far has led us to conclude that the entire process might continue for an extended period of time and that our ability to consummate the acquisition on satisfactory terms was not assured. This, in our opinion would be harmful both for our company and for Mercator and we have therefore decided to withdraw our bid,” Agrokor said.

“Accordingly, on 6th February, 2012, we terminated the exclusivity agreement with the Consortium and withdrew our non-binding bid and have thus formally withdrawn from the sale process.”

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