The British-Swiss Glencore corporation prolonged the life of Bosnia's largest aluminium producer, Aluminij Mostar, for the next four days, after its workers came from Mostar to Sarajevo in protest of the smelter's bankruptcy and shutdown.
“Although initially scheduled for Friday, the meeting between Glencore representatives and top government officials from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity was rescheduled for Monday, and that will be the last time they will try to reach an agreement on the price of electricity needed for the continuation of Aluminij's business,” Aluminij Mostar wrote in their statement on Thursday, adding that as the company's long-time partner, Glencore provided funds for the Mostar company to continue working for the next four days.
However, Glencore is not the only one interested in taking over the Mostar giant. As its workers protested on Thursday in Sarajevo, the FBiH's Energy, Mining and industry Minister Nermin Dzindic held talks with Emirates Aluminium Global representatives who are also interested in taking over Bosnia's third largest exporter.
“We had a working meeting with the potential investor from Emirates Aluminum – two representatives came and talked about where they see Aluminij Mostar. Glencore said what they had to say, we said what we had and we expect to continue the talks tomorrow. As for Emirates Aluminum, which owns two big corporations, they have a large experience in the field, they are present at the global market and they proposed that we make a financial and technical analysis (of the Mostar company),” Dzindic said and added:
“After that, they will make the model and evaluate the company from its standpoint and then enter the negotiations about a possible takeover model of the company.”
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But the 150 workers who came to Sarajevo around 12 in the afternoon left the FBiH government building dissatisfied as they could not reach an agreement with the government on their demands to allow Aluminij to continue operating.
The company which has some 900 employees has been experiencing financial difficulties for years due to increasing production costs and low aluminium prices, and at the end of September, its debt was worth nearly 350 million marks (around €170 million).
The FBiH government further responded to the situation in Aluminij Mostar by adopting an information in which they recalled that in 2017 they approved funds in the amount of 2.1 million marks for the payment of contributions for 884 workers; they agreed to reprogram Aluminij's debt to the state-owned electric company Elektroprivreda HZ HB amounting to 207 million marks; they provided an additional 1.1 million marks for conducting the audit of operations in the function of restructuring or privatization of the company.
In 2017, the company was Bosnia's third-largest exporter with €171 million worth of exports. They are 44 percent owned by small shareholders, 44 percent by the FBiH government and 12 percent by the government of the Republic of Croatia.
