Serbia Extends Bidding Deadline for 70% of River Shipping Company JRB to October 17

Interested bidders face a new deadline of October 17, 4:30 p.m. Belgrade time (1430 GMT) to file binding bids for the majority stake of JRB, the agency said in a statement late on Friday.

Serbia launched in June a new tender for JRB after a previous attempt failed as the two top bidders, a consortium of Cyprus-registered Tamoza Trading and Singapore-based Daxin Petroleum Pte, and a consortium of Malta’s Palmali Shipping Sa and Palmali Holding Company Limited withdrew from sale talks.

Jugoslovensko Recno Brodarstvo has 16 cargo and one passenger ship and a fleet freight capacity of 187,124 tonnes. The company’s profit last year rose to 578,000 euro ($841,857) from 305,000 euro in 2006. Its total revenue increased to 14.8 million euro in 2007 from 13.3 million a year earlier.

($=0.6855 euro)