BIP postpones investment of 40m EUR – new owners fulfilled investment obligations in first year

- The investments of 40m EUR in construction of new beer factory have been postponed, while the sale of Malt factory in Čačak is in the pipeline – the Management of BIP announced.

The Deputy President of the Administrative Board of BIP, Tavi Einaste, said that it was clear that, due to difficult economic situation and global financial crisis, the new owners would not manage to provide funds for construction of new beer factory, and that the owners planned to sell the Malt factory in Čačak.

As he explained, they do not need consent from the Privatization Agency for that decision, but only the consent from the Assembly of stockholders, which is scheduled for February 17th.

Einaste pointed out that the consortium of "Alita" and "United Nordic Beverages", which became the majority owner of BIP year and half ago, fulfilled the obligations in the first year by investing 0.5m EUR in the factory, and he added that the new owners started their second investment cycle of 2.6m EUR in October 2008.

He said that the new owners had decided for production of beer, not agribusiness, and if the malt factory was sold, it would not be much of the trouble for BIP to procure those raw materials for beer production.

Also, their intention, as Einaste added, is not to deal with real estates, but only with production of beer.

Einaste reminded that the social programme that had been accepted by 373 workers had been realized over the last year, and each worker had got 250 EUR per year of work. The factory now has 592 employees.

The Production Manager in BIP, Dragan Jovanović, says that the previous investments were directed to improvement of quality of products, which enabled extension of beer life from 35 to 90 days, as well as to introduction of new brands and new packaging.

Speaking of debts, the Management of BIP said that that factory had not fully settled its debts yet, and that it owned 220m RSD to the suppliers and 600m RSD to the state. At the same time, BIP claims over 500m RSD from the buyers.

AD BIP BEOGRAD

Malt factory Čačak

Tavi Einaste

Alita

United Nordic Beverages

Dragan Jovanović