Jutarnji list: Uljanik has a buyer – Czech company offers 155 million kuna

Czech holding CE Industries, as exclusively learned by Jutarnji list, sent a binding offer at the beginning of this week to purchase the company Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856 to several addresses, including the Banski dvori, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development.

After the collapse of the once-powerful Uljanik, let us recall, Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856 is the only remaining company from its composition that continues the tradition of shipbuilding in Pula, and it could now come under the umbrella of CE Industries, which entered the Croatian market this summer by acquiring the “Đuro Đaković” Group from Slavonski Brod.

– Our binding offer relates to the purchase 54.77 percent of shares in the company Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856 through a direct agreement, and for the specified business shares, we offer a price of 155 million kuna – states the offer from CE Industries, which was sent to state institutions as the state is the founder of Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856. This company was also established to maintain the tradition of shipbuilding in Pula after the business collapse and the opening of bankruptcy of Uljanik, both as a holding and as a joint-stock company.

Since January 2019, Uljanik Brodogradilište d.d. has also been in bankruptcy, which is a co-owner of Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856, so CE Industries sent its offer to the bankruptcy trustee of Uljanik Brodogradilište d.d. Lorisu Raku.

– The validity of the offer is 45 days, and the offer is conditioned on a positive outcome of the due diligence of the company Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856 that we are currently conducting – states CE Industries in the offer signed by the CEO of the Group Adam Šotek. The Czech investor announces that they would ‘shortly make an additional recapitalization of Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856 with the aim of increasing labor productivity and creating conditions for increasing production’.

In Pula, CE Industries, as announced in the offer, would continue shipbuilding, but would ‘supplement the production program with segments in which it possesses specific know-how’. They note that they are an industrial holding with 20 companies in railway transport, energy, and natural resource exploitation, employing 2,400 workers and generating an annual turnover of 350 million euros.

At the time of the opening of bankruptcy, Uljanik Brodogradilište d.d. had 1,400 employees, while Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856 currently employs about 500 workers. The company that CE Industries wants to buy concluded the last business year with a revenue of 25 million kuna and a loss of 13.4 million kuna, so the price offered by the Czech investor may seem surprisingly high. However, Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856 currently has two constructions for foreign clients on the slipway, write Jutarnji list journalists Vedran Marjanović and Barbara Ban.