Serbia To Launch Tender for RTB Bor Copper Smelter by Nov 8 - Media

The tender, initially scheduled for the first half of October, has been delayed as a result of changes in the restructuring plan of the smelter, B92 quoted Ciric as saying.

Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic said last month that Serbia will open a tender for RTB Bor after the government amends privatisation regulations to allow phased payment of up to 70% of the purchase price.

Dinkic also said that the government will adopt legislation allowing buyers of state-owned assets to pay the purchase price in instalments. Under the planned amendments to the current privatisation rules, the buyer will be required to pay 30% of the price upon signing the deal and the rest will be payable over a period of up to five years.

The buyer of RTB Bor will have to agree to take over all debts currently owed by the company, estimated at some $400 million (309 million euro), Ciric said earlier.

He also said that the government, which will be a minority shareholder in RTB after the tender, will keep veto rights over important decisions such as factory relocations and production stoppages.

Swiss-registered metal trader Glencore International is interested in developing a strategic partnership with RTB Bor, Serbian news agency Beta reported earlier.

Serbia’s first attempt to sell RTB Bor failed last year, when the government cancelled a $400 million deal with Romania's Cuprom because the buyer had not paid the required bank guarantees on time.

A second tender for RTB Bor failed in April when Strikeforce Mining and Resources (SMR) withdrew from the sale talks. SMR is part of the Basic Element group owned by Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska.

The Serbian copper group is burdened with debt accumulated during international economic sanctions against former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. RTB Bor, which is the biggest employer in Serbia's eastern region of Bor, has some 8,700 employees, of whom almost a quarter must be laid off before the sale is wrapped up.

Serbia's government has 442 companies left on its privatisation list, 69 of which the government will open tenders for. Seventeen companies are already in the process of going private.

($ = 0.7737 euro)