By Maja Zuvela - Reuters

SARAJEVO – Bosnia offered an 88 percent stake in its sole aluminium smelter Aluminij Mostar for –76.84 million ($100.9 million) in an international tender yesterday.

The stake is equally owned by the Muslim-Croat Federation government and small shareholders. The remaining 12 percent belongs to the Croatian TLM company that helped Aluminij restart production after the 1992-95 war.

The tender aims to attract firms with an international reputation in the processing and production of aluminium and will be open until April 23.

According to the conditions of the tender, a buyer will have to maintain output, take over 935 employees and pay for the firm in cash.

Aluminij, based in the southern town of Mostar, is the Balkan country’s biggest exporter. It recorded output of 121,000 tons of metal in 2006 and exports worth some –240 million ($317.3 million).

The first part of tender documentation has been placed on the website of the federation privatization agency (www.apf.gov.ba) and Aluminij Mostar (www.aluminij.ba).

The second part will be available upon written request to the commission for tender documentation after the signature of a confidentiality statement and potential bidders are required to make a non-refundable deposit of –10,000.

The federation privatization agency in December planned to issue bid invitations to several selected firms but the process was blocked by federation Industry and Energy Minister Vahid Heco, who insisted on a public tender.

The bid invitations targeted leading producers such as Alcoa, Alcan Inc and RUSAL, as well as Aluminij’s longtime partners Norway’s Norsk Hydro and Swiss-based metals trader Glencore International AG.

In January, the regional government annulled Heco’s decision and Aluminij’s management, which has insisted that leading metal producers and its proven partners should be favored in the sell-off, agreed to a public tender to make the process transparent.

Bosnia is made up of the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic, both with their own governments and parliaments.