The consortium for the TLM takeover consists of four Croatian companies: Dalekovod, Konstruktor Inzenjering, Zagreb-Montaza and AluFlex Pack from Zadar - and Feal from Siroki Brijeg, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
After the session of the Fund's Management Board, the board's chairman, Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec, said that the consortium consisted of companies that currently employed about 6,000 workers and whose prospective revenues for this year would be about one billion euros.
In addition, they are oriented towards export and enjoy a good rating abroad, according to Polancec.
The consortium undertook to invest a total of 107 million euros in the TLM and to retain all 1,400 TLM workers on the payroll.
Polancec added that in recent years the factory in Sibenik had accumulated losses of more than 640 million kuna, while its stock capital is 520 million kuna. Since 1998, the company has received almost 800 million kuna of state guarantees.
A similar situation is in the ironworks in the biggest Croatian coastal city.
Since 2000, the plant has incurred losses of about 320 million kuna and in the meantime it has used state guarantees of about 40 million kuna as loan collateral.
The new owner is the Polish Zlomrex as it offered the highest price per share of the Split ironwork, that is 10.11 million kuna.
The new owner has pledged to invest 200 million kuna and to cover the ironworks' debts in commercial banks in the amount of some 165 million kuna.
Zlomrex, which has two ironworks and two rolling mills in Poland, has recently bought Austria's processing group with its own steel-making facilities called Voelstalpine.