Consulting company selected for valuation of Lasta

The Supervisory Board of Lasta has chosen the consulting company BDO Business Advisory from Belgrade for the valuation of the property and the capital of this company, Lasta told Tanjug.

After the valuation, which, as they say, is expected to take place by the end of March, the state is planning to put a 77% stake in the oldest transportation company in Serbia up for sale by the end of March.

Lasta is owned by the Republic of Serbia, the Equity Fund, the City of Belgrade, several local self-governments, the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, the National Health Insurance Fund... whereas a 23% stake is owned by small shareholders.

The future purchaser will need to oblige to invest in the company's rolling stock and to keep the same number of workers, of which there are currently two thousand.

Although the sale of Lasta was planned last year, the company's top management asked at the time for a conversion of the tax debts of around RSD 700 million into the company's capital to be carried out.

– This debt was incurred in 2004 and 2005 and the interest accrued in the meantime. Each month, we paid RSD 13 million. We then had to see whether we would come to a point where we are no longer able to repay the debt, whether to pledge the buses as a collateral with the Tax Administration or to go into bankruptcy – the director of Lasta, Toni Gajic, told Tanjug earlier.

The company owned RSD 550 million, and the rest of the amount up to RSD 700 million consisted of other claims, including those pertaining to Lasta's daughter-companies.

Gajic said that the entire conversion process had taken a long time. It was completed in November 2018.

Lasta a.d. Beograd

BDO Business Advisory Beograd

Grad Beograd

Lasta

BDO Business Advisory

City of Belgrade

consulting company for valuation of Lasta

Toni Gajic