Textile combine "Raška" not to go bankrupt - money from sale of property to cover debts

Instead in bankruptcy, Novi Pazar-based textile combine "Raška" will be sold in parts and the money obtained in that way will be used for repayment of debts to creditors and workers. The representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, the Privatization Agency and the City Administration will for the body that will be running the sale procedure. Complete documentation that is necessary for sale of the property will be prepared within the next month. This is the result of the talks beetween the Ministry of Economy, Mlađan Dinkić, and the delegation of the City administration of Novi Pazar.

- We have come to the best possible solution - says Meho Mahmutović, the Mayor of Novi Pazar, and points out that there are "eight interested buyers from Novi Pazar who are now tenants in that space, but there are also companies from Turkey and Germany that have expressed the interest". The result of the agreement is, also, "forming of special emergency fund for the factories in this region" within the Textile Industry Development Fund in Serbia where all interested textile companies, especially those interested in purchase, will enjoy various benefits. The Government of Serbia will make it possible for them to obtain loans under very favorable terms, with grace period and minimum interest rate.

The rest of the property of combine Raška will be turned into a technical-industrial park. There are two options that 65 workers of the former giant can choose from - "they can either keep working in newly formed companies or accept the social programme".

The debts of Novi Pazar's Textile combine are estimated at over 2 billion RSD. About 1,300 workers are owed 8m EUR based on unpaid salaries during the forced vacation. At the beginning of September, the Tax Administration ordered the Court of Commerce in Kraljevo to file the company for bankruptcy. People from the Ministry of Economy said on that occasion that the "bankruptcy in TC Raška is inevitable".

The same solution will also be applied to holding company "Vojin Popović", which is in bankruptcy since November 2005.