A public auction for the sale of the Pula-based Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856, set for Monday, will not be held because there are no interested buyers, and official receiver Loris Rak announced a general assembly of creditors to lower the price for a third round of sale.

The starting price for today’s auction was €20.73 million, which is 75% of the estimated value.

The official receiver said they would again contact the Czech CE Industries, the only company that has expressed an interest in taking over the dock for 155 million kuna (€20.58 million), adding that the company was obviously not interested in today’s offer of 156 million kuna, payable in euro (€20.73 million).

The director of Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856, Samir Hadzic, told Hina today that unfortunately there were no interested buyers for today’s auction, although according to the information he possessed there were companies interested in taking over Uljanik Brodogradnja 1865.

“We are obviously now paying the price of procrastination. In late 2022 we had the offer of the Czech partner for 155 million kuna, but we procrastinated too long on this,” Hadzic said.

Representatives of the government, the largest creditor of the bankrupt Uljanik shipyard, based in the northern Adriatic city of Pula, decided at a meeting of creditors at Commercial Court in Pazin in April that the Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856 company would be offered for sale by public auction.

The government thus accepted the proposal from official receiver Loris Rak that the model of sale by public bidding be abandoned.