Business | Investment
Austrian group looks for UAE investors
Austrian industry group A-Tec's chief executive leaves for a trip to the UAE next week to look for potential investment partners. Mirko Kovats is in need of cash to finance future acquisitions, he said during a reception in Vienna on Tuesday.
- By Arno Maierbrugger, Sub-Editor
- Published: 01:00 April 11, 2008
Vienna: Austrian industry group A-Tec's chief executive leaves for a trip to the UAE next week to look for potential investment partners. Mirko Kovats is in need of cash to finance future acquisitions, he said during a reception in Vienna on Tuesday.
Kovats will meet 30 to 40 investors during his trip to Abu Dhabi and Dubai as well as to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, he said.
Analysts presume that the fund-raising trip is connected to A-tec's plan to acquire Serbian copper mine RTB Bor, which is set to be privatised by the Serbian government.
Kovats described RTB Bor's operation to be "extremely profitable". Immediately accessible copper reserves would sum up to two million tonnes worth $17 billion, Kovats said.
A-Tec originally agreed to pay $514 million for RTB Bor. But the credit squeeze coupled with political instability in Serbia, had hindered A-Tec to arrange finance for the purchase, A-Tec's spokeswoman Claudia Mueller-Stralz said. In a revised offer last week, A-Tec proposed to the Serbian Privatisation Agency to pay at least $380 million combined with a performance bond amounting to $60 million.
More from Investment
More from Business
Business Editor's choice
-
‘Wrong Way' Krugman
The source of our economic malfunction lies with government-mandated bank regulations
-
Greek exit could make Eurozone stronger
Departure will show limits of bailouts and allow remaining members to act much more like a unit
-
UAE upholds values of free trade
Recently released statistics confirm an established fact, namely that of the UAE embracing the free trade principle in general and imports in particular
