Uljanik: Deadline for Offers Expired, No Information Yet

Although the deadline for submitting offers to purchase 54.77 percent of shares in Uljanik Shipbuilding 1856 expired on Thursday at 3 PM, it is still officially unknown whether a concrete offer has arrived, but there are unofficial indications of it.

– I understand the public’s interest, but at this moment I am unable to provide any information on that. We will only determine the situation today, the commission will do its part, the process is ongoing – said the bankruptcy administrator Loris Rak briefly for Hina.

Unofficially, it is learned that ‘some envelopes with offers have arrived’, but more details about who sent them should be known in the coming days. On the other hand, some media speculate, and unconfirmed rumors suggest, that one expression of interest has arrived from a well-known interested investor, the Czech group CE Industries. It is assumed that during the day deadlines will be established in which potential buyers will acquire the right to due diligence of Uljanik Shipbuilding 1856.

– I still do not have any official information. After all, I represent the management of the company whose shares are being sold – said the director of Uljanik Shipbuilding 18576 Samir Hadžić for Hina.

So far, only the company CE Industries from the Czech Republic has expressed interest in purchasing 54.77 percent of shares in Uljanik Shipbuilding 1856, and the price at which the majority package of shares in Uljanik Shipbuilding 1856 has been offered is 27.6 million euros. In the event that there was no expression of interest, it is expected that a second round of sale attempts will be announced very soon, in which, according to the decision of the Creditors’ Assembly, the starting price will be reduced by 10 percent.

At the Assembly held on January 16 of this year, it was decided that the future owner of Uljanik Shipbuilding 1856 will be sought through an international tender, thereby rejecting the then offer from the Czech investor, the group CE Industries, which made a binding offer of 155 million kuna and at least another 75 million kuna in additional capital to cover the incurred losses and stabilize the operations of Uljanik 1856.

Deputy County State Attorney Nevenka Kovčalija then said that this opens up the opportunity for other interested investors to participate in the purchase process and added that bidders will be required to sign a statement that the shipbuilding activity will be retained in Uljanik.

This is the second attempt to sell Uljanik Shipbuilding 1856, whose majority owner is Uljanik Shipyard in bankruptcy, after the state, as the largest creditor, requested a postponement of the sale discussion in December. The state, which has a predominant role in the Creditors’ Assembly of Uljanik Shipyard in bankruptcy, decided last summer that 54.77 percent of shares in Uljanik would be sold through a public call, with a starting price no less than 208.3 million kuna. Then in September, bankruptcy administrator Loris Rak stated that there was interest from potential domestic and foreign investors. Everything was prepared to start the tender process, and then everything stopped due to the offer from the Czech group.