German company "Leoni" bought factory "Fiaz" and announced investments worth 15m EUR

German company "Leoni" bought the units of Prokuplje-based factory “Fiaz” in bankruptcy today (April 22, 2009) and announced that it would invest 15m EUR in production of automobile cables within the next three years.

After he signed the memorandum of cooperation with the representatives of company “Leoni, the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and the Minister of Economy, Mlađan Dinkić, said that the production in Prokuplje should start around July 1st and that the first 200 out of total of 2,000 workers would be employed until then.

The memorandum of cooperation obliges the Government of Serbia to grant the aid of 5,000 EUR to company "Leoni" for each newly created job.

Dinkić said that total of 400 workers should get jobs in the new cable factory in Prokuplje prior to the end of the year, and he added that the first buyer would be German BMW.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia said that company "Leoni" was the world’s largest manufacturer of automobile cables and that it registered about 5 billion EUR worth of incomes in 2008.

The representatives of company "Leoni" promised to invest 15m EUR in rehabilitation of production in factory “Fiaz”, which they bought for 58m RSD, and to employ total of 2,000 workers within the next three years.