Milanović is Tired of Lesar’s Populism

The government has selected the consortium of bidders Confida – Revizija from Zagreb and Confida Klagenfurt, Schonherr Rechtsanwalte, and CD Invest Consult from Austria as the advisor for the privatization and recapitalization of Hrvatska poštanska banka (HPB), it was announced at today’s government session.

BDO Croatia from Zagreb and Lagerkvist & Partners from Sweden also submitted a bid for the advisory role, but it was rejected due to incomplete documentation and was also more expensive (15.1 million kuna) than the Croatian-Austrian bidder (10.4 million kuna).

The selected advisor must assess the total value of HPB and the value of Croatia’s stake in the bank’s capital, explore the market, and recommend strategic investors for the purchase of HPB shares, as well as prepare a privatization plan. The government believes that the privatization process of HPB will be completed in the first half of next year.

Prime Minister Zoran Milanović commented at the session on the criminal complaint filed against him by the president of the Croatian Labourists, Dragutin Lesar, regarding the privatization of HPB, calling it a ‘legal sensation’ because it concerns a complaint for negligent business practices in an attempt.

Without intending to mock or belittle, this is a ‘bizarre attempt’ to incriminate the government for attempting to sell a legal entity. It is an attempt and cannot be a criminal act of negligent business practices, and even if it were to happen, the sale of HPB is a matter of the government’s market assessment, stated Milanović.

Lesar reported Milanović because the government is proceeding with the privatization of HPB before a strategy for managing state assets has been adopted, while Milanović emphasizes that in such ‘broad documents’ as the strategy, the government’s business intentions regarding the sale or retention of specific legal entities are not revealed. The management strategy is one thing, while the intention to sell a legal entity is a matter of market assessment; sometimes the cards are not revealed in the interest of better sales, says Milanović.

I appeal to stop this ‘base populism’ because we have started to complain and file criminal complaints, Milanović stated, adding that decisions on whether the state will sell or recapitalize some of its companies are ‘specific business moves of the government for which it will be held accountable to voters.’