March 14 (SeeNews) - Polish group OT Logistics said on Wednesday it established a subsidiary in Serbia to offer freight forwarding, transhipment and project cargo services to customers from Southeast Europe (SEE).
The subsidiary, OTL Forwarding, is based in Belgrade and will use Croatian seaports, including Rijeka and Ploce, to service the markets of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia, the Polish company said in a statement.
The establishment of the company aims at extending the group’s presence in these markets and it may contribute to increased transhipment in Croatia's Rijeka port, controlled by OT Logistics, the company said.
The group’s presence in the Western Balkans and Slovenia will make it easier for OT Logistics to canvass customers, especially as regards road and rail transport, and to maintain regular contact with them, the president of OT Logistics, Zbignew Nowik, said in the statement.
"Also, we hope that intensifying business relationships in local markets will positively affect the transhipment volume at the Port of Rijeka. We wish to participate in developing local freight forwarding and logistics market – we see a high development potential here, based mainly on more effective utilisation of the transport infrastructure existing in the region," Nowik said.
The establishment of the Serbian subsidiary is also a part of the development by OT Logistics of the North-South transport corridor in the areas located between Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas and intensifying trade in goods between Central European countries, Nowik added.
In December, OT Logistics said it expanded its shareholding interest in Croatian port operator Luka Rijeka [ZSE:LKRI] by 2.70% to 35.26% following the completion of a takeover bid. The takeover bid, launched in November, was accepted by 148 shareholders who sold a total of 364,115 shares to OT Logistics.
OT Logistics placed in December 2016 the sole bid in a tender for the sale of 30% of Montenegrin port operator Luka Bar [MNG:LUBA], offering 8.52 million euro ($10.5 million) for the stake. In January 2017, the Polish company also submitted the sole bid in a tender for 51% of Montenegro's state-owned railway freight operator Montecargo, offering 2.5 million euro and committing to a 17.45 million euro investment programme.
However, in April, Montenegrin transport minister Osman Nurkovic said that the government had terminated the talks for the sale of Luka Bar and Montecargo to OT Logistics as the selected privatisation model was not in the best interests of the seller.
($ = 0.807866 euro)