BELGRADE (Serbia), December 4 (SeeNews) – Serbia ranked an Austrian consortium first in a tender for the sale of its debt-laden copper mining and smelting complex RTB Bor, the Privatisation Agency in Belgrade said late on Monday.
The consortium comprising Austria’s A-Tec Minerals and Metals Holding GmbH, A-Tec Industries AG and Montanwerke Brixlegg AG has offered to pay $466 million (318 million euro) for RTB Bor, the government's asset-selling agency said in a statement.
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The agency also said it will start talks with the selected buyer within five days. The timeframe for the negotiations is 30 days, with an option to be prolonged by another 30 days.
Serbia has received two bids for RTB Bor. The second-ranked bidder was Strikeforce Mining and Resources (SMR) Ltd company, part of Basic Element group owned by Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska. It has offered to pay $370 million (251 million euro) for RTB Bor.
Serbia's government launched a second tender for RTB Bor on August 31 after it cancelled a $400 million deal for the sale of the copper complex to Romanian company Cuprom because the buyer had failed to pay the required bank guarantees in time. The Serbian government set the starting price in the second tender at $340 million and required a minimum investment of $180 million in RTB Bor.
The copper group is burdened with some $400 million in outstanding debt accumulated during the international economic sanctions against former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The group, which is the biggest employer in Serbia's eastern region of Bor, has some 8,700 employees and almost one-fourth of them must be laid off before the sale is wrapped up.
The World Bank initially insisted that the mine should be closed as its outdated equipment and obsolete technology were a risk to the environment and the lives of some 65,000 people in eastern Serbia but later revised its position.
($ = 0.6820 euro)