"Austrian technology group Andritz bought the Croatian boiler manufacturer Djuro Djakovic Termoenergetska Postrojenja, and the change of ownership can be seen in the commercial register as of Thursday," state news agency Hina said on Thursday, citing the Andritz company website, without disclosing the value of the transaction.

Andritz announced on its website on Wednesday that it had purchased the company, which had annual revenues of some €60 million and about 870 workers.

Hina did not report the company’s profits, but added that Djuro Djakovic Termoenergetska Postrojenja operates at two locations, in the eastern city of Slavonski Brod and in Luzani in eastern Croatia.

The company was previously owned by the Russian company NordEnergoGrupp, owned by oligarch Alexey Mordashov, who has come under EU sanctions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Djuro Djakovic Termoenergetska Postrojenja is “a successful company with more than 100 years’ experience in the manufacture of boiler plants for all types of fuel according to the most demanding parameters. It specialises in the design and manufacture of boiler plants, energy islands and biomass and waste processing power stations, thus supporting the circular economy,” Hina quoted an unsigned corporate press release published on the Andritz website.

“The Croatian company manufactures and delivers, on a turn-key basis, complete power stations for the production of electricity and heat energy using biomass (cogeneration) with a power output of more than 2 MW. It is a European leader in the manufacture of bespoke pressure parts and boiler equipment,” Hina continued.

The acquisition is expected to further strengthen the Austrian company’s position on the market of  equipment for renewable energy sources. Andritz has about 27,400 employees and is present at over 280 locations in more than 40 countries.

Djuro Djakovic Termoenergetska Postrojenja had been part of the Slavonski Brod-based state-owned Djuro Djakovic engineering conglomerate until the mid-1990s.

During the privatization process, Austrian company AE Energietechni bought “over 51 percent of shares” in 1996, Hina said. “Due to problems in the company, Djuro Djakovic Termoenergetska Postrojenja changed owners and was then owned by Russian oligarch Mordashov for the past ten years or so,” Hina attempted to explain the company’s history.

Mordashov came under EU sanctions after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, which created problems for the Croatian company and resulted in the freezing of its bank account. The company then appealed to the government for help to continue operating and to be taken off the list of sanctioned companies.

In late March, the then Finance Minister, Zdravko Maric, signed a document “separating the question of ownership from the normal functioning of the company and preventing any transfer of funds to the owner or his affiliates,” Hina tried to explain.

“The owner remains under the sanctions, but this document exempts Djuro Djakovic Termoenergetska Postrojenja from sanctions. Our company continues to operate normally, and a monitoring system has been put in place towards the owner, who has basically been stripped of his rights in the company,” CEO of the company, Ivica Maric said then, without offering any explanation on what he meant by “monitoring system.”