Croatia Says Candidates for Croatian Railways' Unit Fail to Place Valid Bids

"We haven't got a single bid complying with the tender requirements," Croatian Privatisation Fund (HFP) spokeswoman Mihaela Felker told SeeNews.

Last month, Croatia offered in five separate tenders majority stakes in subsidiaries of Croatian Railways, cutting their prices after previous tenders failed to attract investors.

Austrian manufacturer of railway switches VAE GmbH has submitted a letter of intent showing interest in the privatisation of manufacturer and repairer of railway track equipment Proizvodnja Regeneracija rather than a competitive bid, she said.

Czech producer of machinery and steel structures Moravia Steel submitted a bid for the same company, Proizvodnja Regeneracija, but the bid was incomplete, she added.

Five sets of tender documents were sold for this Croatian Railways subsidiary.

The deadline to submit bids in the five tenders expired on Wednesday. The fund has extended to November 5 the tender deadline for the Pruzne Gradjevine company, Felker added. This company manufactures and installs steel structures and provides infrastructure maintenance. 

No bids were submitted for rolling stock repairers Remont I Proizvodnja Zeljeznickih Vozila Slavonski Brod and Remont Zeljeznickih Vozila Bjelovar and for tourism company Zeljeznicko Ugostiteljstvo Zagreb although two sets of tender documents were sold for the tourism company.

The fund had offered 74% in each of the five companies. The starting prices of these stakes were respectively 21 million kuna ($3.7 million/2.9 million euro) for Proizvodnja-Regeneracija, 18 million kuna for Pruzne Gradjevine, 26 million kuna for Remont I Proizvodnja Zeljeznickih Vozila Slavonski Brod, 39 million kuna for Remont Zeljeznickih Vozila Bjelovar, and 53 million kuna for Zeljeznicko Ugostiteljstvo.

(1 euro = 7.2379 Croatian kuna)