ZAGREB, April 1 (Reuters) - Croatia will now focus on divesting state minority stakes in local firms, Deputy Prime Minister, Petar Cobankovic, told reporters on Friday while kicking off a new agency for state-owned assets (AUDIO).
The new agency will control state stakes in some 440 companies. The state has a stake higher than 50 percent in 56 of them and their nominal value is 10.7 billion kuna ($2.05 billion). The value of those with a state minority stake is assessed at some 1.9 billion kuna.
"Our priority now will be to offer for sale our stakes in the companies where we do not have more than 50 percent. It will be done through public offerings and via auctions," Cobankovic said.
He did not give any precise time framework within which the sell-off is due to take place.
The privatisation process has been largely stalled in the European Union candidate in recent years due to unfavourable market conditions and the fact that many firms put on sale were running losses.
AUDIO merges the Croatian Privatisation Fund (HFP) and the government's Office for Management of State Assets.
Cobankovic said that he expected AUDIO would run the state assets in a more efficient and transparent manner than was the case with its predecessors.
For this year Croatia, which aims to complete the EU accession talks this year, targets the general budget gap of 5.1 percent, the highest since 2003. It plans to secure a small but still unspecified amount of funds for covering the gap through the sale of state assets. ($1=5.211 Croatian Kuna) (Reporting by David Spaic Kovacic, writing by Igor Ilic; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)