Viktor Lenac shipyard recorded a loss of €4.62 million in the first nine months of 2026, compared with a profit of €3.2 million in the same period last year. Total revenue stood at €66.4 million, a 9.5 per cent decrease year-on-year. The financial report was published on Friday via the Zagreb Stock Exchange.
The first half of the year ended with a loss of approximately €6.1 million, but a profit of €1.47 million was achieved in the third quarter. Total expenses were nearly €71 million, or 2.2 per cent higher. The Kostrena shipyard emphasised that EBITDA reached €11 million. Depreciation for the first nine months amounted to €7 million, which is about €1.16 million higher than in the nine months of last year, mainly due to the capitalisation of investments in Dock 11.
The nine-month result was strongly influenced by expenses related to irregularities discovered at the end of March, for which a criminal complaint has been filed against an unknown person. Although an insurance policy exists, the actual applicability of coverage and the scope of any potential recovery have not yet been determined. As a precaution, expenses were charged for the incurred damage, resulting in a total loss of €4.6 million by the end of September. The consolidated loss of the Group was €4.58 million.
At the beginning of the year, a high-tech fraud occurred at the company, causing the shipyard to lose almost €9 million. The case became public in March, when the police reported a so-called CEO fraud. An unknown perpetrator falsely presented themselves as a business partner of the shipyard via electronic communication and induced an employee to make several cash transfers to accounts they provided. It was subsequently discovered that this was a fraud in which the company lost several million euros.
The County State Attorney's Office in Rijeka announced on 12 October that an investigation had been opened against former board chair Sandra Uzelac on suspicion of abuse of trust in economic operations. According to the State Attorney's Office (DORH), there is reasonable suspicion that Uzelac, in March of this year, contrary to the company's internal rules and without appropriate prior checks, approved seven payments from the company's business account to two accounts in foreign banks. The money was, according to the prosecution, immediately transferred by unknown persons from those accounts. The DORH suspects that this conduct caused the company damage of €8,988,860.
After the case was uncovered, Sandra Uzelac resigned from her position as board chair of Viktor Lenac. The supervisory board accepted her resignation, and the notice to the Zagreb Stock Exchange cited personal reasons as the cause. Uzelac has since been employed by Primorje-Gorica County. According to the decision on employment dated 5 October, she was appointed as an economic and financial affairs advisor II in the Department for Maritime Property, Transport and Communications, on an indefinite basis, with a three-month probationary period. The decision was made one week before the State Attorney's Office publicly announced that an investigation had been opened against the former board chair of the shipyard.
Six applications were received for the public tender published on 7 August, and five candidates met the formal requirements. Four of them took part in the testing and interview. Uzelac scored 19.7 points and took first place on the ranking list. The justification for the decision states that Uzelac obtained a certificate on 22 September confirming that no criminal proceedings for offences prosecuted ex officio were being conducted against her at that time. A check of criminal records also confirmed that she had not been convicted. Based on these documents, the County concluded that there were no legal obstacles to her employment.
The shipyard generated revenue from a total of 60 projects during the nine months, four of which were continued from last year, including the refurbishment of a passenger yacht and a US Navy vessel. The majority of revenue was generated from special projects which, in addition to regular works, include the procurement and installation of equipment and specialised services, as well as logistics services. There was a significant drop in the regular repair of commercial and passenger ships, a consequence of the occupancy of Dock 5. More repairs were carried out in the smaller dock, the majority of which were for passenger ships of the domestic national fleet.
The report assessed that employment during the nine months was satisfactory, with a somewhat less favourable structure of production activities and capacity utilisation. This was influenced by the occupancy of Dock 5 due to the continuation of works on the refurbishment of the passenger yacht, which began in August last year. Viktor Lenac employed 274 workers at the end of September, ten fewer than a year ago, and the average net salary for September was €1,780. The associated company VL Steel had 76 employees. Viktor Lenac shipyard is majority-owned by the Italian Palumbo Group.
