ZAGREB, January 27, 2019 – Representatives of trade unions active in the Pula-based Uljanik shipbuilding group said on Saturday that their two-hour meeting with the shipyard’s management and the manager of the Brodosplit shipbuilding company, Tomislav Debeljak, had ended without any concrete results, repeating that unions wanted Uljanik to continue with shipbuilding activity and keep as many workers as possible.
“We still don’t have information on the potential investors that have given bids for the takeover, so we can only make guesses or accept information published by some media outlets,” unionist Boris Cerovac told Hina.
Cerovac added that unions did not want to favour any of the potential investors and wanted to talk to every investor that was interested in taking over Uljanik. “It is important to us – and we have made that clear to Mr Debeljak – that shipbuilding is maintained instead of launching real estate business, and we want the investor to keep as many workers as possible. We want to ensure that with a social agreement and expect the potential partner to accept it,” said Cerovac.
The management of the Pula shipbuilding group on Saturday continued analysing bids submitted for the takeover of the shipyard, and after meeting with Debeljak and unionists, the management met with the directors of all companies making up the Uljanik Group.
According to unofficial sources, apart from Brodosplit, which has submitted a bid for Uljanik’s takeover in partnership with Italy’s Fincantieri, offers have also been submitted by the Scenic group from Australia and the Maritime Institute from Split.
Uljanik CEO Emil Bulić said on Friday that a total of six companies had done an in-depth analysis of the shipyard’s operations.
The deadline for the submission of binding offers for Uljanik’s takeover expired at 8 pm on Friday.
The shipyard’s management is expected to present the bids to Economy Minister Darko Horvat on Monday.
More news on the Uljanik shipyard can be found in the Business section.
