Serbia extends deadline for RTB Bor bids to May 15

BELGRADE, April 21 (Reuters) - Serbia has granted Austria's A-TEC (ATEC.VI), the sole bidder in a tender for troubled copper mining and smelting complex RTB Bor, a deadline extension to submit a binding offer, the state privatisation agency said.

The government launched its fourth attempt to find a partner for the debt-laden state copper miner in February, offering suitors a 40 percent stake in a new company and setting an April 21 deadline for bids.

A-TEC was the sole company to buy tender documents.

The government would co-own the new company, which would revamp and expand the business and in which the winning bidder could potentially raise its stake to up to 67 percent.

Bidders would also inject at least $116 million of fresh capital into RTB Bor but be eligible for a $130 million soft loan from the government for a new smelter.

Three earlier efforts to sell a controlling stake in RTB Bor, run down in the 1990s when Serbia faced sanctions for its role in the Yugoslav wars, were unsuccessful. The company is estimated to have debts of $500 million.

Deals with A-TEC and Romania's Cuprom have fallen through at the last minute in the past two years.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac. Editing by John Stonestreet)