According to the data provided by the Serbian Privatization Agency (as of September 21, 2015), there are currently 357 companies involved in the process of privatization.
On the other hand, the Privatization Act requires for the privatization process to be completed before December 31, 2015.
Save for 188 companies, for which the Government already adopted an action plan for the commencement of bankruptcy proceedings (due to no productivity, no interests from potential investors and unsustainable financial performance), it remains to be seen how many companies will actually find a genuine buyer, and thus, avoid bankruptcy proceedings before the December deadline. Hence, while awaiting to see the results of these ongoing privatizations procedures, it is important to emphasize that buying a bankrupt businesses and/or its assets certainly has measurable benefits for potential buyers.
To that end, the latest amendments to the Bankruptcy Act brought more transparency and clarity to the bankruptcy process, as well as better regulation of the status and role of bankruptcy administrators with the aim of speeding up the process in a lawful manner while providing efficient protection for the creditors. Furthermore, in comparison to acquiring a company or its assets in the privatization process, acquiring a bankrupt business and/or its assets does in fact have several important advantages, some of them being as follows:
