SISAK IRONWORKS SOLD TO RUSSIA'S MECELJ

SISAK, Feb 6 (Hina) - Acting on behalf of Russia's "Mecelj" company from Celyabinsk, the "Conares Trading" company from Zurich on Thursday signed a contract on the purchase of Sisak Ironworks. #L# The Russian partners are obliged to keep all 1,700 ironworks employees and start production on March 1. The new owners are not allowed to sell company assets in the next five years. The sale contract was signed at a building of the Sisak company by the head of the Conares Trading management board, Vladimir Iorich, the new Ironworks director, Nassibulla Muhatdinov, and deputy bankruptcy commissioner Blanka Anducic. Bankruptcy commissioner Ilija Maric previously signed the contract in Sveti Duh hospital in Zagreb, where he is undergoing medical treatment. Iorich thanked county prefect Djuro Brodarac and Croatian President Stjepan Mesic for their support for the Russian company's take-over of the ironworks. He announced that production would commence in about a week. The new director of the Sisak company, Nassibulla Muhatdinov, told reporters that some workers would return to work by February 20, pointing out that the number of workers to be called up initially would depend on business plans and the dynamics of putting the power and other plants into operation. Muhatdinov said that Mecelj had given a five-year corporate guarantee for the payment of workers' salaries within a six-month period should the factory cease operating due to Mecelj or Conares Trading's fault. By September this year, Conares Trading should increase the capital stock of the Ironworks to US$8 million, Muhatdinov said, adding that about US$30 million would be invested into upgrading the factory. Asked why Mecelj had not given bank guarantees for the purchase of the ironworks, Iorich said that Mecelj could have given such guarantees but that it had estimated that it was better to use the money to buy raw materials. The signing ceremony was also attended by President Mesic's advisor Dubravko Radosevic, county prefect Djuro Brodarac, Sisak mayor Dinko Pintaric, members of the Sisak company's union co-ordinating body, headed by Mato Somic and Ivica Kenda, and representatives from the Russian Embassy. Some members of the union co-ordinating body, dissatisfied with the contract, said production would not begin until the new owner and director defined the methods of work with the co-ordinating body. The co-ordinating body does not want any member of the previous management to remain in the new management because those people had caused the current situation in the company, the union members said. The main commissioner of the Croatian Union of Metal Workers in the Ironworks' Remont Caprag plant, Ivica Radosevic, wanted to know what would happen to the plant and its 270 workers who had not received their minimum wages for December because the company's account was blocked and called for the replacement of plant manager Drago Pejic. (hina) rml