Serbia to sell Zastava car maker
27  December 2007

Serbia’s state-run privatization authority announced Thursday it was inviting prospective buyers to review documentation about the sale of the country’s sole carmaker, Zastava Automobili.

In a statement, Serbia’s Privatization Agency said that interested parties involved in car production „whether fully-assembled or manufacturing components” for at least three years, with 2006 revenues of at least €500 million or investors registered for no less than three years and with managed funds of at least €2 billion (about $2.9 billion), will be allowed to review the documentation about the sale.

Zastava, based in Kragujevac, some 70 kilometers southwest of Belgrade, is currently assembling the Fiat Punto under a 2005 license, and is due to start assembling General Motors’ Opel models in 2008. The factory was brought to a virtual standstill in the 1990 amid the Balkan wars and the international isolation of the then Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro. It was also damaged during the 11-week NATO bombing during the 1999 Kosovo war.

Zastava will terminate the production of its own Yugo trademark car in 2010, after more than three decades. In 2006, it pro