BANJA LUKA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), March 20 (SeeNews) – The government of Bosnia’s Serb Republic on Thursday decided to sell its 58.52% stake in troubled department store Boska to a consortium of two companies from neighbouring Serbia, Business group Delta Holding and clothing maker and retailer Zekstra.
“The buyer will pay 3.0 million euro ($4.6 million) for the state-owned shares, invest an additional 3.0 million euro in the company and keep the company's current staff of 254,” the Serb Republic government said in a statement.
The buyer has also pledged to repay Boska’s outstanding debt, of which 1.5 million marka ($1.2 million/761,000 euro) is owed to company employees, the government said without elaborating. It would send its decision to the Serb Republic parliament for approval.
Boska is located in Banja Luka, the administrative centre of the Serb Republic, which together with the Muslim-Croat Federation forms war-divided Bosnia.
It is one of the biggest department stores in Bosnia, covering an area of some 16,000 square metres. The company posted a loss of 2.75 million marka in 2006, down from 3.73 million marka loss the previous year, according to the latest available data from the Banja Luka Stock exchange. Its shares last traded at 0.30 marka on March 17, unchanged from the previous trading on March 14.
The Serb Republic government failed to sell its 58.52% stake in Boska in an international tender held in 2005, saying the received bids were inadequate. The Serb Republic’s pension and restitution funds hold a combined 12.54% stake in Boska, and the remaining shareholders are private investment funds and individuals, each with a stake of less than 5.0%.
Delta Holding is owned by Miroslav Miskovic, a Serbian tycoon that emerged in the early 1990s during the rule of ex-Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic. Delta has retail businesses in Montenegro, Bosnia and Bulgaria.
Zekstra is a Serbian producer, retailer and exporter of fashion clothing.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bosnian marka)
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