Jat Airways privatisationNo bids at tender

Jat Airways Union representatives say that no company has bought the tender documentation for the sale of the national carrier. The Privatisation Agency and the Ministry of Economy officials would neither confirm nor deny these claims. The deadline to buy the tender documentation expired on Friday, September 26 at midnight. The ministry did however say that "technically, it is possible that an offer sent by mail on Friday afternoon could still arrive", as was the case with B&H Air. Aeroflot, Air Berlin, Iceland Air and Air India were all mentioned earlier in the summer as the possible buyers.

The Ministry of Economy said in June that the starting price for Jat would be EUR 150 million for 100% of its shares. However, by July 31, when the tender was at last called, the minimal price for a 51 percent stake was set at EUR 51 million. This price was determined on the basis of the data submitted by the company itself, with no independent auditing. The union now blames the world economic crisis and the state's irresponsible behaviour for the drop in the value of Jat Airways. It states that the airline should have be put on sale as planned late last year and early last year when there were strong contenders for the purchase.

The Ministry of Economy promised that if the tender was unsuccessful it would give Jat a financial injection to purchase new aircraft and would wait at least a year until putting the airline on sale again. Meanwhile it is expected that in a few weeks a new CEO will be named by the government ending Vlaisavljević’s one year as head of Serbia’s national airline, having had many critics. Meanwhile the sale for Jat Tehnika looks much better with 4 companies buying tender documentation. Three of these are known the the public while the fourth, still unknown, is now widely speculated to be Boeing following the meeting between the company and Serbia’s heads of state in New York a few days ago.