Kazakh company Zhol Zhondeushi yet to acquire Novi Sad's ZGOP

The Kazakh company Zhol Zhondeushi, which bought the Novi Sad-based railway construction and repair company ZGOP in mid-December, has not yet taken over the company.

The Kazakh company will take over ZGOP only after the formalities at the Ministry of Economy have been completed and the sales and purchase agreement has been signed. Representatives of the Kazakh company were the only ones to appear at the public auction organized by the Ministry of Economy. They paid EUR 3.6 million for the only railway construction and repair company in the region. Prior to signing the sales and purchase agreement, the Kazakh company is supposed to file additional documentation to the ministry in order for the ZGOP takeover to be successfully completed.

The current director of ZGOP, Zoran Stanojevic, says for Novosti that the formalities related to the takeover have most probably not been completed due to the holidays and an increased number of non-working days.

– I hope that the new owners will also solve a very serious problem of a lack of workers. We have asked the state on several occasions to help us employ a larger number of workers, due to an increased volume of operations, but also in order to replace old, experienced workers who are retiring. These obstacles should no longer be there and I believe that ZGOP will receive fresh blood – Stanojevic says.

The new owner obliges by contract to invest EUR 9.5 million in the next two years through a capital increase, which shouldn't be a problem, as Zhol Zhondeushi meets the requirement of having an annual turnover higher than EUR 300 million.

ZGOP has changed ownership three times so far. It was first privatized back in 2008, when it got an owner through the Privatization Agency, and it changed ownership twice afterwards. In 2011, it went beck to being in the state's responsibility, as a company in restructuring.

Zgop a.d. Novi Sad

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

Agencija za privatizaciju Republike Srbije Beograd prestala sa radom 29.01.2016.

Zhol Zhondeushi

ZGOP

railway construction

railway repair

Zoran Stanojevic