September 25 (SeeNews) - Bosnia’s Muslim-Croat Federation said on Tuesday it had approved three binding bids for an 88% stake in the country’s sole aluminium smelter, Aluminij, Bosnian media reported on Tuesday.
Britain's En+ Group, Greek metals, energy and engineering group Mytilineos and a consortium of Swiss-registered metal trader Glencore International, Croatian power transmissions company Dalekovod and Bosnian aluminium profiles maker FEAL will be allowed to proceed in the race for Aluminij, the Federation’s Privatisation Agency said in a statement posted on its website.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
London-listed metals and mining group Vedanta Resources, which was also allowed to file a binding offer, did not do so by the September 24 deadline, the statement said.
The Muslim-Croat Federation is one of the two autonomous parts forming war-divided Bosnia. The other is the Serb Republic.
The Privatisation Agency said it would rank the offers by October 9. It has said earlier it expected to sign a privatisation deal for Aluminij by October 30.
The 88% stake is owned 50/50 by the Federation government and a group of small shareholders. Croatian aluminium smelter TLM owns the remaining 12%.
Aluminij, based in the southern town of Mostar, had an output of 121,000 tonnes of metal in 2006. Its 2006 revenue amounted to 287.9 million euro ($391.3 million), of which some 240 million euro were generated by exports.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bosnian marka)