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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Privatisation to bring in €80 million by end-2004

Belgrade, 4 August 2004

Serbian Privatisation Agency Director Miodrag Djordjevic said today that some 140 companies should be offered for sale at public auctions by the end of the year, with 120 of them expected to be sold off for a total of between €70-80 million, plus a further 30 percent of that sum in investment.

Djordjevic said the receipts of between €70 million and €80 million should go to the state budget, adding that a revenue of some €40 million is expected from the sale of state-owned equity.

He said that tenders to sell socially-owned capital in 14 enterprises will also be called by the end of the year, adding that the Privatisation Agency will carry out that plan with financial assistance from the World Bank and the European Agency for Reconstruction.

Djordjevic also said that 67 enterprises are currently being restructured, with partial privatisations of 10 of them expected to start in the fourth quarter 2004.

At his first press conference since he took office on July 15, Djordjevic said his primary task is to speed up the privatisation process rather than just help bring revenues to the state budget.

According to Djordjevic, the Agency will also deal with recapitalisation of firms where the state owns a stake, which is often endangered by decreasing share prices after recapitalisation.

He said that between January 1 and August 4, 2004, the Agency auctioned off 159 out of 166 companies offered, with combined revenues of €81 million, pledged investment of €69 million, and a total of €2.58 million in social welfare programmes.

Commenting on recent media reports that the Agency is not monitoring the implementation of privatisation agreements and obligations of new owners, Director of the Privatisation Support Centre Snezana Dabovic said the Agency has initiated the cancellations of around 80 contracts and that it carries out around 100 controls of post-privatisation procedures a month.