January 23 (SeeNews) - The Croatian transport ministry said on Thursday Romania's Grup Feroviar Roman (GFR), part of private rail group Grampet, has asked for an extension of the sell-off timeframe for rail freight carrier HZ Cargo to allow time to conduct another due diligence.
In July, the Croatian government said it had accepted the offer for a 75% stake in HZ Cargo submitted by GFR.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
The request was made at a new round of talks on Thursday between the Croatian transport ministry and Grampet Group, which will continue on Friday, the ministry said in a statement.
In December, local media reported that the stake sale talks between the Croatian government and GFR have run into a number of issues, including a sale contract proposed by the buyer that the government in Zagreb is not happy with.
As part of its winning bid, GFR offered to pay a total of 40 million euro ($54.5 million) for the HZ Cargo stake and to invest 20 million euro in the modernisation of the freight carrier's rolling stock.
($=0.7334 euro)