Croatia shipyards for sale

In order to achieve this, the government in Zagreb has to put its six state-owned shipyards on the Adriatic coast up for sale. The first sell-off round fell through last September amid meagre investor interest.

“This time the costs of restructuring for potential investors have been reduced after an agreement between the government and the docks compensating a part of the shipyards’ debts with state ownership on some of the docks’ property,” said economy minister Djuro Popijac.

Shipbuilding used to be Croatia’s flagship export industry, but it is now in debt and survives only due to state subsidies, considered illegal in the EU. The sale is sensitive as the shipyards employ about 11,000 people and jobs could be lost.

Depending on the potential sales, Croatia’s taxpayers may have to pay up to 13 billion kuna ($2.4 billion) of the total debt of the shipyards, finance minister Ivan Suker said. The tender will run for 60 days and potential investors will have to take over at least 40 percent of restructuring costs.

Only one of the yards, Uljanik in the northern Adriatic port of Pula, runs a profitable business. The government plans to offer 25 percent of Uljanik to its employees later on.

Four shipyards will be offered for a token price of 1 kuna. The smaller of the two shipyards in the southern Adriatic city of Split will be offered for 18.2 million kuna, while investors will have to pay 397.5 million kuna ($74.86 million) for 59 percent of Uljanik.