‘Turkish Caliskan has no intention of starting production in Dioki’

The President of the Union of Workers of Dina Petrokemija from Omišalj on the island of Krk, Predrag Mihaljević, stated today that all prerequisites for starting production have been met, the account has been unblocked, and the supply of electricity has been secured under favorable conditions.

However, they were informed by the Management that the Turkish investor currently has no intention of starting production, so the union suggests that the renewal of production be offered to another investor. Mihaljević said at a press conference that the union was informed by the Management that ‘for now the investor has no intention of starting production because they hesitate to invest under the existing conditions’, that they were not explained what conditions are being referred to, but that they were told that ‘they are looking for a new partner.’

Therefore, they propose that unpaid salaries be paid from the advance of HEP of 6 million euros for the purchase of land for the construction of an LNG terminal, which is partially owned by Dina, which was, he emphasizes, decided at a Government meeting in August last year.
HEP, as the buyer, and Hypo Bank, which has a lien on that property, signed a letter of intent for the purchase, but the contracting could be prolonged since the estimates of the land value by the buyer and seller differ by about 20 million euros, he said.

If the workers do not receive a response from the Government in the next few days regarding when they will receive unpaid salaries, they will seek an urgent convening of the municipal and county headquarters for protection and rescue and ask them to assess possible dangers considering that existentially endangered people work at Dina, and that there are about 900 tons of chemicals in it, some of which are very dangerous and toxic. Therefore, the union suggests that the Government verify this information and that, if it determines that the investor, Turkish Caliskan, is indeed withdrawing from the contracted deal, to find a new investor.

The union emphasizes that contracting with a new investor will not be possible if the workers are not paid their salaries, and so far there are seven unpaid. Mihaljević stated that the union understands the justified dissatisfaction of the investor with the slowness of the ownership restructuring process, but also that the investor has taken on the obligation to renew production regardless of the completion of the initiated pre-bankruptcy settlement and ownership restructuring.

Mihaljević assessed that it would be ‘the twilight of reason’ for Dina to end up in bankruptcy and that there are interested investors who have approached him personally. He announced that at the meeting of the Supervisory Board of Dina on January 14, he would request that the investor be required to ‘definitively state their position’. Dina Petrokemija, a member of the Dioki Group, submitted a proposal for the opening of a pre-bankruptcy settlement procedure on November 30, and last week that procedure began.