February 6 (SeeNews) - Croatia's centre for enterprise restructuring and privatisation, CERP, said on Thursday it is launching the sale of state-owned minority stakes in 30 local companies.
The sale will be carried out in the framework of the government's plan to put up for sale its minority stakes in at least 90 companies in three waves by the middle of 2020 as part of Croatia's preparations to adopt the euro. This is the third and final wave of CERP sales under the plan, after the launch of the previous two in the second half of 2019.
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The state-owned stakes in the third batch of 30 companies will be again offered for sale at public auctions, with all interested bidders having to apply for participation no later than seven working days ahead of its planned date, CERP said in a statement earlier this week.
The candidates should also pay upfront a guarantee equal to 10% of the offered stake's starting price in order to be eligible to participate. The selected buyer will be required to sign a purchase agreement within three days following the auction.
The offered stakes range from 0.004% in Split-based engineering firm Lavcevic, offered at a starting price of 1,660 kuna, to 24.59% in metal products manudacturer Djuro Djakovic Alatnica offered at a starting price of 54,471 kuna.
The government has set the highest starting price of 2.87 million kuna ($423,300/385,000 euro) for its 10.44% holdings in Vinkovci-based hotel operator GEM, while for the 15.36% stake in Sinj-based hotel and trade company Cilas the minimum ask price is 1.37 million kuna.
For the state's 18.89% stake in river transport operator HRB Dunavski Lloyd-Sisak, CERP is seeking a minimum of 920,000 kuna, while the miniority stakes in the remaining companies are offered at less than 900,000 kuna each.
Eighteen auctions will be held on February 27, nine auctions on March 9 and three - for the stakes in GEM, Gilas and HRB Dunavski Lloyd-Sisak, will take place on March 23.
In July, the Croatian authorities sent a letter of intent to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II), the first formal step towards adopting the euro, committing to sell state-owned minority stakes in 90 local companies.
The government hopes that Croatia will join ERM II in about a year.
(1 euro = 7.45683 kuna)