Bosnia’s Serb Republic Sells Department Store Boska to Serbian Consortium

The consortium, comprising business group Delta Holding and clothing maker and retailer Zekstra, said it would invest more than 40 million euro ($55.3 million) in the Boska project, including a complete renovation and the pay-off of its outstanding debt of 12 million marka, the government said in a statement after the signing ceremony.

Delta-Zekstra will also keep Boska’s current staff of 254 and will hire some 100 more.

The Serb Republic government owns 58.52% of Boska, its pension and restitution funds hold a combined 12.54% stake and the remaining shareholders are private investment funds and individuals, each with a stake of less than 5.0%.

Boska is located in Banja Luka, the administrative centre of the Serb Republic, which together with the Muslim-Croat Federation forms war-divided Bosnia.

Delta Holding’s director Miroslav Miskovic said his group would also build by 2010 a shopping mall in Banja Luka and announced that insurance company Delta Generali, which is co-owned by Delta Holding and Italy’s Generali insurance group, would start operations in the Serb Republic.

Boska is one of the biggest department stores in Bosnia, covering an area of some 16,000 square metres. The company posted a loss of 3.9 million marka in 2007, up from 2.75 million marka loss the previous year.

Delta Holding is owned by Miroslav Miskovic, a Serbian tycoon that emerged in the early 1990s during the rule of ex-Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic. Delta has retail businesses in Montenegro, Bosnia and Bulgaria.

Zekstra is a Serbian producer, retailer and exporter of fashion clothing.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bosnian marka)