May 28 (SeeNews) - Serbia plans to open a tender for the sale of state-run petrochemicals producer HIP Petrohemija by the end of the year, a Serbian government official has said.
"I expect that from all the negotiations and all the analyses that potential investors can and should make, we will have something that is certain this year, and that we will be able to publish a public call by the end of the year," Dragan Stevanovic, state secretary at the economy ministry, said in a video file posted on the website of public broadcaster RTS on Monday.
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HIP Petrohemija recently completed a planned overhaul which has lifted its production capacity by 23%, Stevanovic said.
"The value of the investment is about 18 million euro, overhaul works are worth about 2 million euro," he added.
The company plans to launch a fourth ethylene production line by the end of October but needs a 150 million euro ($167.9 million) private investment in the construction of a new polypropylene factory, Stevanovic said.
Investors from Russia, Poland and Romania have expressed interest in the privatisation of HIP Petrohemija, RTS reported.
In February, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it supports the Serbian authorities’ plan to move forward expeditiously with the privatisation of HIP Petrohemija which was agreed under the 30-month Policy Coordination Instrument-supported programme for Serbia approved by the Fund in June 2018.
Serbian oil and gas group NIS, majority owned by Russia's Gazprom Neft, owns 12.72% shareholding interest in HIP Petrohemija, according to the teaser prospectus of the petrochemical group posted on the website of Serbia's privatisation agency. State-owned Srbijagas owns 13.38%, 4.87% is controlled by power distributor Elektrovojvodina doo Novi Sad. The Serbian government owns directly 54.89% and controls a further 13.63% via the country's Development Fund.
($ = 0.89323 euro)