SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), September 30 (SeeNews) – The privatisation agency of Bosnia’s Muslim Croat Federation said it has approved a program for the privatisation of majority state-owned steel mill Zeljezara Zenica.
Zeljezara Zenica is based in Bosnia's fourth-largest city, Zenica. The manufacturing operations of the company were privatised in the late 1990s by a Kuwaiti investor and renamed to BH Steel. In 2004 the company was taken over by Lakshmi Mittal and become a part of the Arcelor Mittal group in 2006. The old steel mill operations that remained in government hands are currently highly indebted.
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The sell-off agency said in a press release on Tuesday meetings are planned with the directors of a further eight companies that are planned for privatisation with the aim of drafting a report for the agency’s steering board pin-pointing potential problems they may face in the process.
The names of the companies were not disclosed, but local media reported that state-owned equity in drug maker Bosnalijek, fuel retailer Energopetrol, aluminium smelter Aluminij, tobacco factory Fabrika duhana Sarajevo and insurer Sarajevo Osiguranje may be put up for sale.
Recently the government adopted an action plan for the implementation of the privatisation process at an undisclosed number of companies, which envisions the sale to take place between October and December this year.
The Federation is one of the two autonomous entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Serb Republic.