After anti-yugoslav war, Zenica steelwork 92 per cent in the hands of
foreign capitalists

[ Le importanti acciaierie di Zenica, in Bosnia-Erzegovina, sono oggi
"finalmente" nelle mani del capitale straniero (51% agli inglesi della
LNM, il secondo monopolio piu' grande del mondo, 41% ai kuwaitiani
della KIA, e solo il restante 8% nelle mani del cosiddetto "Stato".
Ecco a che cosa e' servita la "guerra per l'indipendenza" di
Izetbegovic, ed ecco perche' l'Occidente l'ha calorosamente
appoggiata... Sull'argomento vedi anche:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/3640 ]


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040816/bs_afp/
bosnia_steel_company_040816215134

Business - AFP


LNM Holdings buys majority stake in Bosnia's biggest steelworks


Mon Aug 16, 5:51 PM ET

ZENICA, Bosnia-Hercegovina (AFP) - The world's second-largest steel
producer, LNM Holdings, bought a 51-percent stake in Bosnia's biggest
steelworks, BH Steel, for 80 million dollars (65 million euros).
Under the deal signed here by the LNM head, India-born Lakshmi Mittal,
and Bosnia's Muslim-Croat entity's Prime Minister Ahmed Hadzipasic, the
group is to invest at least another 135 million dollars over the next
ten years in modernizing the work process.
It is the biggest single investment in Bosnia following the 1992-95 war
that ruined the Balkans country's communist-style economy.
LNM Holdings was selected in June for negotiations on the purchase,
after the owners rejected another bid submitted by ISPAT Group of India.
LNM is obliged to activate integral production of the steelworks until
the 2007 raising it from the current 150,000 tonnes of steel per year
to between two and 2.5 million tonnes.
The group is to keep all 2,850 BH Steel workers, and plans to increase
the number of employees to 4,000 or 4,500 over the next few years.
BH Steel was set up in 1999 as a joint venture owned by the government
of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat part and The Kuwaiti Investment Agency (KIA).
KIA, which has invested 95 million dollars (75 million euros) in BH
Steel, is to keep 41-percent stake in the company, while the remaining
eight percent will remain in the hands of the goverment.
The steelworks, located in the central town of Zenica, was the main
producer in the former Yugoslavia, but it was devastated during the
country's war.
In April this year, LNM bought a majority stake in the Ljubija iron
mine in the northwest of the country, for 15.1 million dollars.
The mine is planning to produce one million tonnes of iron ore in 2005
and 1.5 million tonnes in 2006, which would be further processed by the
BH steel.
LNM has assets producing about 14 million tonnes of iron in central and
eastern Europe, including acquired operations in the Czech Republic,
Poland, Romania and Macedonia.