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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Law on free distribution of shares expected to be adopted by year’s end

Belgrade, 19 December 2007

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said last night that parliament will adopt the law on free distribution of shares to citizens by year’s end.

Djelic told RTS that the shares will include shares of oil company NIS, power company EPS, airliner Jat Airways, telecommunications company Telekom, medications plant Galenika and Airport "Nikola Tesla".

Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic said that NIS and Jat Airways should be privatised next year by the model proposed by this ministry and that initial public bidding for Telekom might also be organised.

According to him, Airport "Nikola Tesla" and Galenika will go private in 2009 while EPS should be privatised in 2010.

Should everything goes according to plan, it is realistic to expect that all citizens get the right to shares of first privatised companies in 2009 while they would be able to trade with shares six months after, when the companies appear on the stock exchange, the Minister explained.

Speaking on the procedure of distributing the shares, he said that three major conditions need to be satisfied: citizenship, voter list registration and legal age. He also said that Kosovo Albanians will not be included in the distribution on these grounds.

Dinkic said that authorities will try to simplify the procedure so that citizens could come with their ID and fill in a simple form and hand it over to the post office or National Employment Service.

Minister of Trade and Services Predrag Bubalo said that the proposed model of distribution of shares is good as it provides social justice and promised that citizens will get at least €1,000 as these are companies valued on the market.

The Serbian government on December 6 adopted the Bill on the right to free shares and financial compensation which citizens can exercise in the course of the privatisation process, envisioning the distribution of 15% of shares of public companies that are privatised, while employees and former employees should receive €200 per year of employment.