Kosovo: Trepça to be sold, to pay back its debts

Prishtinë, Sept 22, 2006 – Officials of UNMIK Pillar IV and the Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA) have decided to put Kosovo’s largest mine and metallurgic plant Trepça on sale soon, in order to be able to pay back company’s debts to the creditors.

“Trepca will be sold through special spin-off, at the amount of €200 million, as much as the debts towards the creditors count,” said a high official of UNMIK Pillar IV for the Kosovar daily Koha Ditore.

Another source from KTA was quoted to say that some units of Trepça, which are not currently at use, would be sold initially, while the mines would be privatized within a three years’ period.

Nazmi Mikullovci, Manager of Trepça Southern and member of the Trepça Advisory Board, said that many parts of Trepça would be privatized, but the mines and metallurgy require special consideration. He also noted that the creditors’ claims mostly relate to the period when Trepça was administered by the Serbs.

Officials of the KTA, on the other hand, said the final decision on the privatization of Trepça has not been taken yet. The international administrator would be assigned the duty of developing a strategy and part of this strategy would be the privatization of this SOE.

ECIKS