Tender for Bosnia aluminium plant due in February

MOSTAR, Bosnia, Jan 24 - An international tender for a majority stake in Bosnia's sole aluminium plant Aluminij Mostar should be prepared by the end of February, a government minister said on Wednesday.

Vahid Heco, the industry and energy minister in Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation government, said the government and Aluminij have agreed to issue a public tender for an 88 percent stake in the Balkan country's largest exporter.

"I think that the process of Aluminij's privatisation will resume very soon...and expect that the tender will be ready for publishing by the end of February," Heco told Reuters after the government session.

Heco blocked the sell-off process in December, saying bid invitations to several selected companies contravened the privatisation law. He also said the firm's value, set at 150.3 million Bosnian marka ($102.5 million), was too low.

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

Earlier this month, the government annulled Heco's decision to block the sell-off.

Aluminij's management, which has insisted that world leading metal producers and its proven partners should be favoured in the sell-off, agreed on a public tender instead of bid invitations to make the process more transparent.

Aluminij recorded output of 121,000 tonnes of metal in 2006 and exports worth some 240 million euro ($312.1 million).