August 14 (SeeNews) - Companies from Bulgaria and Macedonia are among the potential investors who have shown interest in a tender for a strategic partner of Serbian state-run copper mining and smelting company RTB Bor, an Serbian government official said on Tuesday.
A total of seven companies from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russia, Canada, Serbia and China have bought tender documentation thus far, Dragan Stevanovic, state secretary at the economy ministry, said in comments aired live by Serbian private broadcaster Prva TV.
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"Given the global economic trends and our experience with [steel mill] Zelezara Smederevo, I believe that the Chinese investor can be defined as the most serious bidder," Stevanovic said.
In March, the Serbian president's office said China's Zijin Mining Group had expressed interest in investing $100 million (87.7 million euro) in the modernisation and restructuring of RTB Bor.
Serbia's economy ministry invited bids in a tender for a strategic investor in RTB Bor last month. The strategic partner should inject $350 million in the capital of the company and keep all 5,000 jobs.
Potential candidates face August 20 deadline to submit offers in the tender.
($ = 0.876629 euro)