By Daria Sito-Sucic SARAJEVO, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Agrokor, Croatia's largest food retailer and which also makes several foodstuffs, expects 2010 revenue to rise almost 10 percent to near 4 billion euros ($5.5 billion) after focusing on its core businesses. Also, profit this year will rise several percent from last year's 32.4 million euro net profit, Ante Todoric, vice-president for the retail sector, said in an interview. Todoric said the company's plan for 2011 was to watch the market's reaction, focus even more on its core business and invest cautiously. "Agrokor always has its eyes open wide," he said when asked about expansion beyond the Balkan region. This week, Standard & Poor's revised Agrokor's rating outlook to stable from negative, citing an improved debt maturity structure and lower proportion of short-term debt. It also affirmed the firm's 'B' corporate credit rating. Todoric said Agrokor had managed to increase revenue in both 2009 when Croatia's economy contracted 5.8 percent and this year when growth was forecast down 1.5 percent. All Balkan states except Albania were in recession last year. Todoric said Agrokor was opening petrol stations across Croatia because it wanted to make the best use of its agriculture business in other sectors. "We have a lot of fertilisers that can be used in biofuels, so we are watching and analysing the possibilities," he said. (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Igor Ilic and Dan Lalor) ($1 = 0.7332 euro) Keywords: AGROKOR/ (daria.sito-sucic@thomsonreuters.com; +387 33 295 484; Reuters Messaging: daria.sito-sucic.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved.
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