Representatives of the company U Gold, which was one of the two bidders for the purchase of the majority package of RTB Bor, expressed dissatisfaction with the decision of the Serbian Government of Serbia to opt for the offer of the Chinese company Zijin. They also are dissatisfied, as they say, with the attitude of the state authorities of Serbia towards this Russiancompany.
According to a statement given to FoNet, representatives of U Gold believe that their offer “is incomparably better and more favourable for the state of Serbia, and that the authorities havenot faithfully and adequately presented it to the Serbian public”.
“The basic qualitative difference is that the offer of the Russian company does not only anticipate to maintain the existing, but to increase the number of RTB Bor employees and, more importantly, to considerably increase the volume of production and implementation, which would secure significantly higher financial inflows to the state budget,” U Gold explained in its statement.
“In addition to preserving jobs for 4,880 people, following the implementation of the investment program proposed by U Gold, the Russian company said in a statement that “it plans to open 1,000 new jobs”.
“In the next six years, Chinese company Zijin envisagesproduction of 120,000 to 150,000, while the Russian company guarantees the production of 220,000 tons of copper concentrate for the same period,” U Gold says.
The Russian company claims that the annual turnover between 2019 and 2024 would amount to USD 3.5 billion and that the level of tax payments in the same period was estimated at more than USD 350 million.
Representatives of U Gold also point out that “their takeover of RTB Bor debt at the level of USD 200 million goes without saying, and that their offer is based on a real rather than a revved up business plan and that they have bank guarantees to guarantee for their investment program”.
In its statement U Gold stresses that they “were still not informed by the state about the Chinese business plan, although this was required by the law, and are ready to engage relevant international auditors to conduct a realistic analysis of their offer, convinced that they are the true winners of this tender”.
Representatives of the Russian company said in their statement that they “informed the competent authorities of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Serbia” about their views on the sale of RTB Bor.
Source: agencies
