Banks consortuim requires to cancel Sartid's sale to US Steel

Banks consortuim requires to cancel Sartid’s sale to US Steel

An international banking consortium members have stated that they require from the Serbian government to cancel the $21.3 million sale of steel producer Sartid to US Steel. Furthermore, representatives of Bank Austrai, part of Germany's HVB Group (HVMG), Germany's West LB and France's BNP Paribas (BNPP) have also announced that they wanted from Serbia to find new investors. In addition, banks also stated that the US Steel's offer for the purchase of Sartid's assets were not good enough. Also, Sartid's $1.7 billion liabilities and other obligations in the sale in April this year were not assumed by US Steel. As a result of this, the banks are waiting for Serbia's decision about the subject. If Serbia inverses the proposal of banks consortium, the banks will take further legal steps. Serbian government has stated that it had every right to negotiate Sartid's sale without seeking a tender. The banks also said that Belgium's KBC (KBKBt) and South Africa's Standart Bank (SBKJ) have $100 million in claims against Sartid from a revolving trade financing facility. However, Serbia has made an announcement on August 2002 that state owned Sartid bankruptcy and gave creditors sixty day deadline to report their claims. Before the bankruptcy, Sartid has signed a one year agreement to process steel products for US Steel's Slovak unit. Therefore, US Steel took the priority access for any restructuring of Sartid.