BELGRADE (Serbia), December 16 (SeeNews) – Serbian construction materials group Alas Holding said on Wednesday it has invested 14.5 million euro so far this year in strategic partnership between its ceramic tiles manufacturer Zorka Keramika and Spanish peer Keraben.
"The year behind us was marked by an investment of 14.5 million euro ($21.1 million) in Zorka Keramika and in strategic partnership with leading Spanish manufacturer of ceramic tiles Keraben," Alas Holding Director Markus Bogdanovic said in a statement.
Alas Holding plans to invest a further two to three million euro in Zorka Keramika in the coming period, Bogdanovic said without elaborating. Zorka Keramika is located in Sabac, in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina.
The 50/50 joint venture company plans to export most of its output of two million sq m of tiles to neighbouring Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bogdanovic said earlier. Keraben also said earlier that it planned to invest three million euro in Serbia.
Alas Holding has invested 75 million euro in production in Serbia since 2001 and will launch exports to the European Union next year. The company, which employs close to 600 in Serbia, extended its consolidated net loss to 526 million dinars ($7.9 million/5.5 million euro last year from 192 million dinars in 2007, data from the country’s business registry showed. It raised its consolidated operating revenue to 2.26 billion dinars last year from 1.66 billion in 2007.
Alas Holding, based in Vojvodina’s administrative centre of Novi Sad, is 84.9%-owned by Alas International, a subsidiary of Austrian building materials producer Asamer Holding AG.
(1 euro=96.4444 Serbian dinars)