Novalić joins the opposition: Let investigative bodies check who the buyer of FDS is

Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Fadil Novalić stuck to his yesterday's stance that British American Tobacco bought FDS shares, although it is clear to everyone that the offer to purchase 39.9% of shares of the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory (FDS) was submitted by the company CID Adriatic Investments GmbH (CID), writes the news agency Patria.

How superficially and without deeper analysis the sale of state ownership is approached is best evidenced by Novalić's statement, who, responding to a Patria journalist's question about whether he knows who Walther Alexander is, said that "he doesn't care"!

- We are not interested in that. Anyone with one more mark could have appeared on the stock exchange and bought FDS, and we have no obligation to check. The stock exchange guarantees that it will sell to the highest bidder, so whoever offers one mark more gets it. Everything else is for investigative bodies if there is a problem - Novalić pointed out.

Incidentally, CID Adriatic Investments GmbH is a 'company' founded in Vienna in May this year, with only two employees. The director is Walther Alexander, a name that appears in 38 companies in Vienna, most of them at the same address.

He was also discussed in the Austrian Parliament, and was linked to a major scandal in Italy involving suspicious transactions - we told Novalić, but he stuck to his position that the FBiH Government should not be interested in that!?

Novalić also lashed out at strong warnings that FDS was sold for a significantly lower amount than its real value, and said that two international institutions conducted the assessment, but they are not available to the public!?

- The speculations that have emerged, concerning the possible illegal sale of FDS shares, are incorrect because everything was done through the stock exchange and only money was involved. The FBiH Government was only the owner of 39.9 percent of shares in this company. No one has the right to condemn us, especially not the opposition. In this way, we ensured the continuation of operations of the former market leader, as well as the retention of workers who are also minority shareholders. I emphasize once again that since 2007, the responsibility for selecting the method and manner of privatization has been transferred from the Privatization Agency to the FBiH Government - Novalić said.

However, one sentence that is common to both the opposition and Novalić is that "investigative bodies should do their part and investigate who CID Adriatic and its owner are." But the prosecutor's offices are silent for now, which is devastating, because experiences in the privatization of companies in BiH are now only gloomy stories in which numerous giants have disappeared.