Ljubljana, March 29 - Slovenia's leading food retailer Mercator and Serbia's largest food producer Swisslion-Takovo signed a letter of intent on Thursday to form a strategic partnership, Mercator said in a statement.
"Mercator will form a capital connection with the trading part of concern Swisslion-Takovo in Serbia and thus enforce its market position in Serbia... and other states in the region of southeastern Europe," the statement said.
It said the tie-up will take place in the first half of this year but gave no further details.
Mercator last year took over Serbian retailer M-Rodic, boosting its market share in Serbia, the biggest market in the former Yugoslavia with 7.5 million people, to some 8 percent.
Mercator, which also has units in Croatia and Bosnia, hopes to further raise its market share in Serbia to at least 10 percent by the end of 2010.
Its shares rose 2.59 percent to 250.8 euros ($334.6) on Thursday while the blue-chip SBI index gained 1.53 percent.