Tender for "Zastava Trucks" prior to May 1st - "Iveco" to write off debt of 4.3m EUR

- It is expected that the tender for privatization of "Zastava Trucks" in Kragujevac will be announced prior to May 1st - said the CEO of that company, Đorđe Nestorović.

At the press conference organized at the Belgrade Fair, he said that Italian "Iveco", which is the owner of 34% of capital, agreed on sale of the company and expressed willingness to write off the debt of 4.3m EUR, but it is not interested in participation in the privatization.

- The starting price of "Zastava Trucks" is 3.9m EUR because the factory has debts in amount of about 30m EUR, but there are chances for that debt to be reduced to 5-6m EUR - said the CEO.

Nestorović said that some companies from the East and from the West had expressed interest in procurement of the company, and that the company's management had already talked with three Chinese companies.

Reminding that the tender for privatization of that company, announced in 2005, was unsuccessful because the company had too much workers - about 1,600, the CEO pointed out that the number of workers had been reduced to 911, and that dismissal of another 50 workers, with allotment of appropriate social program, was in the pipeline.

Nestorović explained that the factory could not produce more than 850 trucks a year because of the problems with procurement of components, which became either too expensive or disappeared after privatization of their manufacturers.