NIS' Privatization Strategy of Consortium "Merrill Lynch – Raiffeisen investment" easily passed by Government of Serbia?

Unofficially, Government of Serbia will give agreement on the final report of the Task force of the Republic Ministry of Mining and Energy about strategy for privatization of NIS, which was delivered by the privatization councilor Consortium "Merril Lynch – Raiffeisen investment".

Besides, the expert public points out that the Government will accept the proposal of the privatization councilor very soon, since it was announced earlier that the first phase of privatization of Petroleum Industyr of Serbia would start in September 2006.

Judging by still unofficial information, the aforementioned Consortium suggested, in its proposal directed to the Government of Serbia, that 33-40% of the assets of NIS should be sold in the first phase of the ownership transformation, with which the Pančevo Petrohemija would go, whereas the State would remain the owner of the majority package of stocks. Afterwards, strategic partner should invest 700-800m EUR in the modernization of production, whereas, after 2010, the State would be obliged to allot certain number of stocks to the partner, so that it could become the majority owner.