SECOND ROUND OF VOUCHER PRIVATISATION COMPLETED

( Editorial: --> 6637 ) ZAGREB, Aug 28 (Hina) - All seven privatisation investment funds participated in the second round of voucher privatisation auctioning which ended at 5pm on Friday. Around 3,000 individuals participated in the auctioning procedure which lasted two days, the Privatisation Ministry said. The second auctioning round included 149 companies with higher prices of shares because the demand for these shares in the first auctioning round was 133% higher than the offer. The total bid value of these shares is almost DM 668 million. Other 206 companies entered the auctioning with lower prices due to lower demand. The overall value of these shares is DM 771 million. "Petrokemija", a Kutina-based fertiliser company, is one of the companies which entered the auctioning with a lower bid price. The company's share package makes 10 per cent of the overall voucher value. In 1997 "Petrokemija" suffered a 128-million-kuna loss. The companies which manage privatisation investment funds participating in voucher privatisation have estimated that the company will lose at least 200 million kuna this year. The share of "Petrokemija" in the privatisation list has been increased from 35 per cent to 51% after privatisation investment funds announced suits, dissatisfied with the assessed value of "Petrokemija" and "Polimeri". Before the beginning of the second auctioning round, employees in "Petrokemija" requested that the percentage of shares offered in voucher privatisation be decreased. An employee headquarters said that the 51% of "Petrokemija" shares in voucher privatisation were not being offered for the sake of interests of Homeland war victims but individuals who would like to cheaply buy the company which is of strategic interest for Croatia. Participating in the process of voucher privatisation are 226,000 Homeland war victims who were given vouchers, worth 1.7 billion investment points. These vouchers are exchanged at auctions independently or through privatisation investment funds for shares of about 500 companies, with the overall value of 12.4 billion kuna. In the first auctioning round, 342 million investment points were spent for the shares of 116 companies worth DM 865 million. (hina) rml 281839 MET aug 98