BAKU Four international companies are expected to submit bids to manage Azerbaijan aluminum, the country's largest enterprise to date to be offered to foreign investors, the State Property Ministry said Friday.
Ministry officials announced Tuesday an open tender for a 25-year management contract for the aluminum complex, which is made up of three separate factories in the Azeri cities of Sumgait, Gyanja and Dashkesan.
"According to our information, four companies intend to submit their proposals," a ministry spokesman told AFP.
The bidding process closes October 6 and results will be announced October 10, he added.
The likely bidders were Russian aluminum, Iran's Iral Co., Britain's Trans World Metals and an Offshore Company in partnership with another British firm, Anson, he added.
The winner will be obliged to revive aluminum production in the country, eradicate all debts to the workforce in six months and invest some 10 million dollars in Sumgait's economy in the first year of operation.
In three years, the Azeri government will offer the managing firm the option of buying the aluminum complex outright under "favorable terms," officials said.
Azerbaijan has already completed a first stage of privatization of small and medium-sized firms, but the long-awaited selloff of so-called "blue chip" enterprises has been delayed for almost two years.
Azeri President Heydar Aliyev however signed two documents recently, a law on privatization and a program for the second stage of privatization, which apparently set in motion the next phase of selloffs.
Foreign investors have grown impatient waiting for the country to offer up its prime enterprises, which include companies in the electricity, chemical, communication, transport and oil and gas sectors.
However, the aluminum tender may not be an indication of how or when blue-chip enterprises will be privatized as officials say the main strategic objects will be sold off according to presidential decree.