Nermin Nikšić wants Damir Hadžić appointed as the receiver for Željezara, aiming to benefit Lager from Posušje, the largest steel importer in BiH!

(Patria) - Leaders of the SDP intend to appoint former Minister of Transport and Communications of BiH, Damir Hadžić, as the "extraordinary administrator" of Nova Željezara Zenica, Istraga has learned from multiple sources close to the party.

The prerequisite is for the Parliament of the Federation of BiH to adopt the law on the procedure of extraordinary administration in the economic entity Nova Željezara Zenica of special systemic importance for FBiH, which would open the possibility for the Government of FBiH, led by Nermin Nikšić, to take full control of the Zenica Ironworks. The ultimate goal is to take over the large reserves of iron and steel located in this company, which was recently acquired by Pavgord from Foča with the help of the Bingo company.

"The extraordinary administrator," the proposed law states, "is a natural person appointed by a decision of the Government of FBiH, and whose appointment is confirmed by a court, for the purpose of managing the debtor's business and conducting proceedings under court supervision."

This means that the Government of FBiH will be above the court, and will appoint Damir Hadžić, the former director of the BiH branch of the Zagreb corporation Agram, to the position of "extraordinary administrator" of the Ironworks.

Hadžić, if this law is adopted, would effectively be above the Bankruptcy Law of FBiH, because "from the day extraordinary administration is introduced, neither pre-bankruptcy nor bankruptcy proceedings can be conducted."

"The court conducting the previous proceedings is obliged, within 24 hours at the latest, to issue a declaratory decision to suspend the proceedings, and to halt all actions of liquidation, division, sale, and transfer of assets," the Draft Law states.

This would mean the Government of FBiH would temporarily take full control of Nova Željezara Zenica. Nikšić's goal, as we learn, is to keep the Ironworks "alive" until the elections, after which this company would definitively disappear.

We remind you that the Foča-based company Pavgord, whose owner is close to SNSD officials, bought Željezara Zenica from the British Mital family, which withdrew from Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the beginning of this year, the European Union began implementing CBAM, i.e., introducing special taxes on goods imported into the EU that are produced using so-called "dirty energy." This made the Zenica Ironworks uncompetitive on the EU market. In the same period, Serbia, in order to protect its market, introduced quotas on steel in January of this year. Slobodna Evropa then reported that, according to the Decree of the Government of Serbia, about 73,000 tons of steel could be imported from BiH to Serbia in the first half of 2026, which is about 31,000 tons less than the semi-annual exports last year. For comparison, the Zenica Ironworks exported about 220,000 tons of steel to Serbia annually.

At the same time, the Council of Ministers of BiH refused to protect the market. Namely, at the end of March, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina rejected the proposal of Staša Košarac, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to introduce 30 percent tariffs on steel imports into Bosnia and Herzegovina for a period of 200 days. Ministers from HDZ BiH voted against it, thereby directly benefiting steel importers in BiH, among whom the largest importer is the company Lager from Posušje. It was evident on the Raport portal on February 10 of this year that the protection of domestic steel production would most affect the import lobby from Herzegovina, gathered around Lager and HDZ BiH.

"We believe that adopting such a decision in an urgent procedure could have serious negative consequences for domestic entrepreneurs, especially for companies involved in steel processing, production of reinforcing meshes, and other products widely used in the construction sector. The introduction of additional customs burdens would directly increase production costs, making domestic producers uncompetitive compared to companies from neighboring countries, such as Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia, where such measures do not exist or are significantly milder," Lager, the largest steel importer in BiH, announced at the time.

The owner of Lager is Herzegovinian businessman Milenko Bašić. His brother Ivan Inja Bašić was arrested in Zagreb in 2019 for criminal activities related to the sale of luxury cars.

It is precisely Lager, according to Istraga's information, that lobbied and continues to lobby for Damir Hadžić to be appointed as the "receiver" of the Ironworks in Zenica, who has worked for years for another Herzegovinian businessman with a Zagreb address – Dubravko Grgić and his company Agram.

For years, Damir Hadžić was distanced from the SDP BiH headquarters due to criminal proceedings. However, Nermin Nikšić and Elvedin Grabovica are now trying to bring Damir Hadžić back into political games. Initially, they had appointed him as the head of the SDP's election headquarters, but due to a rebellion within a part of the party, Hadžić was temporarily removed. However, Nikšić and Grabovica now see an opportunity to appoint Hadžić as the administrator of the Ironworks in Zenica.

In August last year, Damir Hadžić was definitively acquitted of charges of abuse of position during his tenure as the mayor of Novi Grad Sarajevo Municipality. The trial lasted nine years. The prosecution accused Damir Hadžić of illegally enabling the payment of over one million marks from the budget of Novi Grad Municipality to Esed Radeljaš for land that Radeljaš had paid to the Municipality in 2006 for the amount of 51,340.00 KM, thereby damaging the budget of Novi Grad Municipality by an amount of almost one million marks.

Before that, Damir Hadžić was an actor in the Reket affair, where accusations were made that SDP leaders extorted businessman Nihad Imamović. However, the BiH Prosecutor's Office never brought charges in this case.