Croatia Airlines (OU, Zagreb Franjo Tuđman) will embark on its much awaited privatization process this November Croat Minister for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Siniša Hajdaš Dončić, has said.
“I’m confident we will get a couple of good offers. We can offer a majority stake if a buyer is from the European Union. We have received some queries," Dončić was quoted by EX-YU Aviation News as saying.
Once launched, interested firms will have 45 days to submit non-binding bids for a minority stake in the airline following which government will select suitable candidates for the next round of negotiations.
Though a previous attempt at offloading the carrier in 2013 failed to garner any bids, Zagreb is reasonably optimistic it will succeed this time round given that several airlines - among them Garuda Indonesia (GA, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) and China Southern Airlines (CZ, Guangzhou) - have held exploratory talks over the course of the last year.
Members of the ex-Yugoslavia have been keen to replicate Serbia's successful joint-venture with Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International), Air Serbia (JU, Belgrade Nikola Tesla), with all currently in the hunt for a strong strategic partner.
For its part, Macedonia is now in the process of establishing a successor to MAT Macedonian Airlines (Skopje) with talks between the country's Ministry of Transport and Communication, the Macedonian Civil Aviation Agency (MCAA), and representatives from local bus and freight transport companies concerning the venture having been held earlier this month.
"The company which will be granted a license to operate as our national carrier will have to have at least 51% of Macedonian capital and have at least one aircraft registered in Macedonia, either owned or leased," the managing director of the MCAA said.
Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Airport) has been tipped as strong possible partner.
