February 12 (SeeNews) - A tender for the privatisation of Serbian state-run chemicals group MSK Kikinda has failed to attract any offers, Serbian public broadcaster RTS said.
A single company, Cyprus-based Kronospan Chemical Holdings, bought tender documens but it placed no bid in the tender, RTS said on Friday.
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Two companies had expressed interest in the privatisation of MSK Kikinda before the launch of the tender, RTS said.
Serbia's economy ministry had placed potential buyers in two groups: companies that would seek to ensure cheaper natural gas supplies to and continue the existing production programme at MSK Kikinda, and companies that would invest in the production of methanol derivatives, which are profitable on the global markets even under the existing costs of gas supply, Zoran Popovic, a representative of Serbia's Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, said.
MSK exports 95% of its methanol output, as well as 98% of its acetic acid production which it sells goes mainly in the EU market, according to RTS.
In December, RTS said the starting price in the privatisation tender is 38.5 million euro ($47.3 million) and the deadline for the submission of bids is February 9, 2018.
In September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged state-owned gas monopoly Srbijagas to dispose of non-core assets by selling its stakes in MSK Kikinda, HIP Azotara Pancevo and ceramics producer Toza Markovic.
($ = 0.814475 euro)