The supervisory board of the Aluminij aluminium smelter from Mostar on Tuesday appointed Ante Rezic as the company's acting director, and a decision is pending on whether the firm's owners will lease the company to ensure the continuation of production or declare bankruptcy.

Aluminij’s biggest stakeholders are the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Federation entity and small shareholders, each holding a 44 percent stake, and the Croatian government, which holds a 12 percent interest.

After it relieved Drazen Pandza of his duty, the supervisory board appointed Rezic for a period of three months.

His first task will be to finalise details regarding a possible lease of the company to an Israeli-Chinese consortium led by MT Abraham Group from Tel Aviv.

A decision on the matter is to be made by the company’s shareholders at a meeting set for February 21.

In July 2019 electricity supplies to Aluminij were cut off because the debt to its suppliers exceeded €220 million, with the largest portion of the debt being for electricity bills.

In late January this year the last workers left the company, calling on the Federation entity government to accept the Israeli-Chinese group’s offer to relaunch production.

If no agreement is reached with the Israeli-Chinese group, Aluminij most likely faces bankruptcy proceedings, in which case production is not likely to be relaunched ever again.