Free NIS shares in six weeks – Agency for privatization submitted its proposal to the Government of Serbia

Agency for privatization submitted yesterday (August, 24th, 2009) its proposal for free distribution of shares from the Petrol Industry of Serbia (NIS) to the Government of Serbia. According to this proposal, all citizens and employees will be able to get their right to the shares, said Vladislav Cvetkovic, temporary General Manager of the Agency for privatization.

- We are almost finalizing the list of all citizens who have the right to NIS shares, and the Agency will soon send to the Government, by mediation of the Ministry of economy, our proposal of decision for distribution of NIS shares which could make things ready for the start of procedure for obtainment of rights by the citizens, as well as by the employees and ex-employees, to get the shares of this company, said Mr. Cvetkovic.

However, he added that it was still early to guess when those shares would actually be on personal accounts of the citizens, as there were few more technical actions left to be taken and there was still the question of approval by the state departments. But, Mr. Cvetkovic said they “hoped this could all end in the next 6 weeks”. As he explained, the Law about free distribution of shares determines that once the lists for carriers of rights were made, the Government needs to adopt the Decision which would be one of the preconditions for the shares to find their place in property lists.

- In the next few weeks, we will make sure that everyone who has the right to these shares, also gets them on paper, said Mr. Cvetkovic, adding that the public will be informed about all undertaken procedures.

Nevertheless, the legal deadline for distribution of NIS shares has expired on August, 10th, 2009, which was written by the Law about free distribution of public companies’ shares, voted in December of 2007, and the state hasn’t yet announced officially with explanation of the delay nor when the distribution would actually be started.

General Manager of NIS, Mr. Kiril Kravcenko, recently stated that the company was ready to pay to the shareholders the price which would be not less than the one paid during privatization of NIS, that is of the price “Gazpromneft” paid for one NIS share, meaning 96 EUR per share (around 9.000 RSD). Not so long ago, Shareholders’ Parliament decided to increase the number of company’s shares, and to decrease its nominal value.

Tender for “Galenika”

Mr. Cvetkovic stated yesterday that in two weeks time privatization strategy of “Galenika” would be discussed at the Government of Serbia Assembly. According to Mr. Cvetkovic, the privatization strategy was finalized and they would also consider the option of publishing a tender for “Galenika” sale in September, if their strategy would be soon discussed in the Parliament. This tender will be started with the minimum price, which would be determined by the Government. Some of the most serious buyers are German “Strada”, owner of “Hemofarm”, and Greek “Alapis” which already bought “Sumadijalek”.