HEP RESTRUCTURED IN KEEPING WITH NEW LEGISLATION

ZAGREB, July 1 (Hina) - The Croatian electric supply company (HEP) will as of July 1 do business under the name of HEP Group or HEP d.d. with several dependent companies: HEP Production d.o.o.; HEP Transformers d.o.o.; HEP Distribution d.o.o.; and several support companies - HEP Heating d.o.o.; and the Osijek based HEP Gas d.o.o. #L# With this action the structure of HEP has been brought in line with the package of energy legislature. The new organisation is similar to those in the majority of similar companies in countries in the European Union (EU), HEP chiefs stated at a press conference on Monday. The president of HEP's Management Board, Ivo Covic, stressed that all documents issued to employees guaranteed at least minimal rights they had enjoyed until now, regardless of which section they worked in. HEP has more than 15,000 employees. With the new structure, about 10,500 will be involved in HEP Distribution and 2,500 in HEP Production; 1,100 thousand will be in the Transformer company while the head office - HEP d.d. - will employ about 440 staff. At a company assembly held on Monday, data relating to last year's business was presented indicating that HEP ended the year with 24.48 million euros in losses. Losses the year before amounted to 93.87 million euros. Covic emphasised that HEP almost fulfilled it planned investments last year (0.17 billion euros). This year the plan is even more ambitious and HEP intends to invest about 0.25 billion euros, he said. A proposal for a new tariff system for HEP was forwarded to the economy ministry, however, it is still not known whether the proposal will be approved, Covic said. The new tariffing should introduce a simpler method of accounting electrical energy and as hinted, this will be more expensive for households. (hina) sp sb