Slovenian company "Laser Bled" from Ljubljana, which bought "Zlatara Majdanpek", the largest jewerly manufacturer in Serbia, at the auction on June 25th at the price of 4.6m EUR, has not paid the money yet although the deadline for payment of the purchase price expired on October 19th.

Mark Kavčić, the CEO of "Laser Bled", confirmed that information for "Novosti".

- We have asked the Privatization Agency to make it possible for us to pay the complete price, plus 1m EUR for the banking guarantee, by the end of November - Kavčić told "Novosti".

- The bank that supports us in this business has given us the guarantees that it will provide the money for payment of the price of property of "Zlatara" and another 10m EUR for investments by that time.

Kavčić said that "Laser bled" had not paid the price yet because, among the rest, the management of the Majdanpek Metal Industry (IPM), part of which was "Zlatara", had blocked that procedure.

- Regardless of the fact that we are formal owners of "Zlatara", we still can not do anything because we first need to do the necessary inventory of goods, which is made impossible for us - says Kavčić.

Siniša Jevrić, the CEO of IPM, did not want to give any comments on Kavčić's accusations.

Special problem is the gold that is kept in storehouses, jewelry stores and depots:

- Officially, "Zlatara Majdanpek" had 3.05m EUR worth of gold - says Kavčić.

- The quantity of gold is now significantly smaller. According to the information I have, over 2m EUR in gold will be missing after the inventory is done. It is enough for me to remind you that "Zlatara" had 6m EUR in gold after the report was done by the Privatization Agency before the second privatization. The question is where that gold has gone.

Decision to be made soon

When asked about "Zlatara Majdanpek", people in the Privatization Agency said:

- The decision about whether to allow extension of the deadline for payment of the purchase price will be made as soon as possible. In case "Laser Bled" does not get the additional time to pay the price, we will keep the deposit of 460,000 EUR that was paid at the auction.

(Note: complete text is taken over from newspaper "Novosti" of October 23, 2009)