Slovenia’s Pivovarna Lasko Mulls Sale of Croatian Beer Unit - Media

Pivovarna Lasko’s Supervisory Board will convene next week to decide the fate of the Split-based brewer and the most likely outcome would be the disposal of the ailing unit, news daily Poslovni Dnevnik (www.poslovni.hr) reported, quoting an unofficial source.

The source also told the daily that Croatian privately-owned concern Agrokor is interested in Jadranska Pivovara.

Germany's Koenig Ludwig International, the owner of the Kaltenberg beer brand, is also tipped as a possible buyer of the Croatian brewer, Poslovni said.

The brewer now has 60 employees after two thirds of its workforce quit in June, taking redundancy packages.

Earlier this year, the accounts of the struggling Split-based company were blocked. Its owner initially opted to seek liquidation before deciding in June to unfreeze the accounts and resume production, Poslovni said.

The Pivovarna Lasko group comprises the parent company and nine subsidiaries in Slovenia and abroad.

Jadranska Pivovara has seven distribution centers across Croatia.

The Croatian brewer posted an operating loss of 5.1 million euro ($7.5 million) last year, according to Pivovarna Lasko's 2008 financial statement.

At the end of 2008, the Slovenian brewer owned 99.1% of its Croatian peer, the statement also indicated.

Pivovarna Lasko, part of the broader SBI20 index of the Ljubljana bourse, closed down 0.07% at an average price of 28.5 euro on Friday.

($=0.6791 euro)