Bosnia's Federation Gets One Bid for Winery Hepok Mostar

The consortium comprises Serbian wine, alcohol and juice producer Vino Zupa and Sarajevo-based company Amko Komerc, the Federation’s Privatisation Agency said in a statement. It gave no details about the offer.

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 the received bid was formally and legally valid and that the commission responsible for the sale of Hepok would continue to analyse it. It gave no timeframe for the bid evaluation.

The agency called a tender for the state-owned stake in Hepok in July. The deadline for submitting offers expired on September 8.

Hepok is based in the southern town of Mostar in the geographic region of Herzegovina, popular with its wine-making traditions. The company was one of the biggest wine makers in Bosnia before 1992 when the country was part of the Yugoslav federation.

Hepok had a total revenue of 1.74 million marka ($1.28 million/905,000 euro) last year, up from 1.04 million marka in 2006. No profit or loss figures were available.

The remaining 33% of Hepok Mostar has already been privatised. No information was immediately available about the holder or holders of the stake.

(1 euro=1.95583 Bosnian marka)