BELGRADE (Serbia), July 13 (SeeNews) – Serbia said on Monday that the sole bidder in a tender for a 70% stake in its fair company Beogradski Sajam has offered a price of 1.84 million euro ($2.57 million).
The consortium comprising Italian trade fair organiser Rimini Fiera and local firm Verano Motors has also pledged to invest a further 35 million euro in the Belgrade-based company over an unspecified timeframe, the country’s Privatisation Agency said in a statement.
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The consortium has offered to pay the deal price in six annual installments.
The agency will assess the offer up to 30 days from the date on which it was opened, the statement said.
The agency had extended the bidding deadline for the fair company to June 15 from May 15.
That was the second time the agency had adjusted the bidding deadline for Beogradski Sajam, which is fully owned by the state. Serbia invited bids for the company’s majority stake in December without setting a minimum price.
Interested bidders faced an initial March 27 deadline to submit binding offers.
Eligible bidders were companies which had been active in organising fairs for the past three years with minimum revenue of 50 million euro ($69 million) in 2007.
An eligible bidder should have also organised at least 25 fairs annually for the past three years.
Beogradski Sajam (www.sajam.co.rs) and the Balkan country’s largest drug maker, Galenika, are the only major Serbian state-owned companies whose privatisation this year has not been delayed due to the financial downturn.
Beogradski Sajam's net profit rose to 120 million dinars ($1.78 million/1.28 million euro) in 2007 from 95 million in 2006, according to the latest data published on the company's website.
The company has 106,000 square metres of exhibition space in the capital Belgrade. It employed some 240 people in 2007.
Verano Motors, the authorised dealer of French carmaker Peugeot for Serbia, is part of Verano Group, which was founded in 1991 in Belgrade by Radomir Zivanic. Besides car dealing, the group is also active in investment and banking.
(1 euro=93.531 Serbian dinars)