BRATISLAVA, December 23, (WEBNOVINY) — Government’s privatization agency, the National Property Fund (FNM), proposes selling several companies in which it holds shares. According to a report on the operation of companies in which the fund holds a stake, the government should sell the six largest heating companies, shares in seventeen branches of the regional bus transport company SAD, the Bratislava Stock Exchange, the Trencin-based DMD group, a.s., its share in the firm Slovak Telekom, a.s., shares in the spa companies Kupele Sliac and Kupele Bardejov, and the Bratislava polyclinics Poliklinika Tehelna, a.s., Bratislava.
The fund suggests the sale of its hundred-percent stakes in the heating companies in Trnava, Zilina, Kosice, Martin, Bratislava and Zvolen, in the form of a tender with international participation. “This form of sale, with price being the main criterion, means maximizing the price while increasing the quantity and quality of potential investors. In the case of a sale of a 100 percent stake, it means the maximum revenue from the sale of shares, the possibility to choose a strategic investor who will have optimum conditions for managing the company and a full responsibility for its development,” the fund stated in the report.
According to the National Property Fund, heating companies are unable to cover their operating costs in spite of an extensive sale of real estate assets and are forced to draw loans to secure their future operation. The companies have to put up with lower demand due to a slowdown of housing and industrial construction, the fund added.
The National Property Fund considers as wise the sale of its fifteen percent stake in Slovak Telekom. The FNM together with the Economy Ministry hold a 34 percent stake in Slovak Telekom. As a minority stakeholder, they do not have actual power to decide about the company’s future.
The fund does not propose to sell companies with a character of a natural monopoly, such as energy distribution companies.
SITA
