The Ministry of State Assets plans to speed up the activation of state property in 2020 to increase revenues from state assets, Minister Mario Banozic told Hina in an interview.

“We believe that this year we will accelerate the activation of state assets by amending the State Property Management Act and adopting the Unappraised Construction Land Bill, which passed first reading in Parliament last week,” Banozic said.

He said that state-owned financial assets were expected to bring in HRK 870 million in revenues this year, adding that an additional HRK 1.1 billion was expected from profits made by state-owned companies and HRK 240 million from non-financial assets. He noted that last year the plan had been exceeded by more than HRK 130 million.

“We are facing the implementation of the State Property Management Strategy 2019-2025, which is based on the State Property Management Act, the Business Space Lease and Sale Act and the Unappraised Construction Land Act. After years of negligence towards state property, we finally have a legislative framework which will be used to put state assets to the best possible use socially,” the minister said.

The Unappraised Construction Land Act is expected to settle property relations and ownership of unappraised construction land which has been used for more than 20 years by tourism businesses following privatisation processes, and to lay the groundwork for more efficient property management and attracting new investment.

As of this year, the portfolio managed by the Restructuring and Sale Centre (CERP) includes 358 companies, in 21 of which the government’s share exceeds 50 percent, in 332 the government’s share is below 50 percent while in five companies the government is not engaged in business. In the last five years, this portfolio has been reduced by 491 companies; in 2019 alone 58 companies “exited” the portfolio, mostly by sale, while at the same time 29 entered the portfolio, mostly after termination of the contracts, Banozic says, adding that the government plans to sell its stakes in both groups of companies.

By no later than April this year, the Ministry will issue a public call for the sale of shares or stakes in the remaining 30 companies in which the government has a minority stake of up to 25 percent.

“In the first two public calls in 2019, we sold government stakes in 60 companies. In the first call, about HRK 2.6 million worth of shares and stakes were sold in ten companies, while in the second call HRK 234,600 worth were sold in eight companies,” Banozic said.

(€1 = HRK 7.44)