VUČIĆEVIĆ: Sale of Droga Kolinska commenced

(Slobodan Vučićević)

The President of the Administration of Droga Kolinska, Slobodan Vučićević, confirmed that the procedure for sale of that company was underway because Istrabenz was facing bankruptcy due to the crisis. Serbian companies that operate within Droga Kolinska are Grand Prom, Soko Štark and Palanački Kiseljak, and the whole process of sale should be finished by the end of June 2010. Our companies, according to his words, will keep functioning normally.

Vučićević said in the talks with entrepreneurs at the Forum of Serbian Association of Managers that Istrabenz was facing bankruptcy and that it had, therefore, decided to sell "its pearl" Droga Kolinska, of which incomes in 2009 had dropped by 13%.

- Droga Kolinska is now in the process of sale for the third time and the sale will depend on the offers. The process is underway and the bids are expected - Vučićević told Tanjug and added that Slovenian Istrabenz had good idea to make the strongest regional food industry, but the circumstances had brought the company in the situation to sell "the pearl of its business".

According to the regional media, Istrabenz, which owns about 90% of Kolinska, decided to sell the biggest Slovenian food company because it has to return the debt of 100m EUR this year. The procedure for sale of Droga Kolinska is run by French bank BNP Paribas, which got the mandate for that in 2008.

The potential buyers that were mentioned in the media in January 2010 are Croatian Podravka and Serbian Centroproizvod. Vučićević then explained to Blic that it was not going to happen because the acquisition of some company would take six months.

- It would take minimum three years for Podravka to merge with Droga Kolinska due to unclear ownership structure in that Croatian company - Vučićević said on that occasion.

There is still no official confirmation concerning potential buyers of the Slovenian company.

The CEO of Centroproizvod, Nemanja Popov, told Blic that he did not want to give any comment since the process of sale of Droga Kolinska had already commenced.