The Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervisory Agency, Ethiopia cancelled the proposal to sell Awash Winery due to unsatisfactory bids.
The agency had cancelled four previous tenders for the winery for similar reasons.
The sole bid for the winery was an offer of 201 million birr received from the partnership between Mulugeta Kiros and Tigist Demeke. PPESA declined the offer as being lower than the minimum it had expected.
It is to be remembered that MIDROC Ethiopia and affiliated companies, Horizon Plantation Ethiopia, National Mining Corporation and Saudi Star Agricultural Development, proffered the highest bids for five of the eight companies put forward for auction by the Ethiopian Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervisory Agency.The group offered more than 1.3 billion birr for the five companies.
The highest offer of 860 million birr was placed by MIDROC Ethiopia for Upper Awash Agro industry, the largest agro industry in the country claim sources.
Horizon Plantation offered 228.2 million birr for Coffee and 35.1 million birr for Gojeb plantations respectively. The company will pay 141 million up front and the rest over the next two years should PPESA approve the offer.
Saudi Star offered 90 million birr for Ababo Plantation and the National Mining Corporation offered 110 million birr for the Ethiopian Marble Enterprise.
Source: The Reporter
