Privatization Continues – Lasta Has the Most Chance for Being Sold?

The privatization process, which has nearly been stopped, should soon continue with the publication of ads for seven companies, among which are Lasta and Petrohemija.

This practically means that, of the 14 companies which were supposed to find a new owner this year, according to the findings of Blic, four will not be part of that race, because the process has been stopped, whereas, for the remaining three, public ads have already been placed.

The public invitations for Severtrans from Sombor and Jadran from Gajdobra opened in late June and it should become known soon whether there are interested parties. A bit later, it will also be known who is interested in the shares of Zlatara Majdnapek, which were recently put up for sale.

Experts say that it is important that the privatization process has continued, as this gives hope that, after 30 years of prolonging this process, the privatization of former state companies is coming to a close.

The state secretary at the Ministry of Economy, Dragan Stevanovic, recently said that it was realistic to expect for the conditions for the sale of 30 of 76 companies to be met in the current year and the next years, Blic reports.

– As for the others, so far, the conditions for being put up for sale are not there at the moment, because there are some of them that are subject to court disputes and there are property-related problems – he said.

On the other hand, the minister of economy of Serbia, Andjelka Atanaskovic, says that, by the end of the year, purchasers should be found for several larger companies.

– Lasta, where the estimate of the capital is being completed, is one of them. As for Petrohemija, the government should soon set the model under which this company is to be privatized. Unfortunately, there are plenty of companies which have been put up for sale several times, but failed to find a purchaser, so they will probably have to go into bankruptcy – the minister says.

It seems that this will not happen to Lasta, as the Russian company Sinara is interested in it, Blic writes.

Lasta a.d. Beograd

HIP-Petrohemija a.d. Pančevo

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

Severtrans a.d. Sombor

IPM d.o.o. Majdanpek

Lasta

Petrohemija

Ministry of Economy

Severtrans Sombor

Jadran Gajdobra

Zlatara Majdanpek

Sinara

Anđelka Atanasković

Dragan Stevanović

privatization

sale of companies