Serbia bids again to sell stake in miner RTB Bor
BELGRADE, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Serbia launched a fourth attempt to find a partner for debt-laden state copper miner RTB Bor, offering suitors a 40 percent stake in a new company and the possibility of a soft investment loan.
Three earlier efforts to sell a controlling stake in RTB Bor, which was 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.
According to a tender published in the Politika daily, the government will co-own the new company, which would revamp and expand the business, though bidders could potentially raise their stakes to up to 67 percent.
Bidders would be expected to inject at least $116 million of fresh capital into RTB Bor but would benefit from a $130 million soft loan from the government for a new smelter.
Binding bids are due by April 21.
The third tender, for a 67 percent stake, was launched in November. Not a single company met a February 27 deadline for bids, the Privatisation Agency said.
Attempts to sell RTB Bor to Romania's Cuprom and Austria's A-TEC (ATEC.VI) in the last two years both fell through at the last minute. (Reporting by Ivana Sekularac. Editing by Gordana Filipovic and John Stonestreet)
