Parliament decides about INSIG privatization

TIRANA, Nov. 27 – Monday, the parliament discussed the upcoming privatization of the country’s largest insurance company, INSIG, which is still state-owned. The plenary session focused on the project law entitled “For defining the privatization manner of INSIG sh.a.”
This law defines the privatization of 61 percent of the state shares, which will be sold to a strategic foreign investor through the procedure of an open international tender. The Finance Ministry is obliged by this law to complete the entire process of privatization by the end of 2007. The evaluation of the exact value of this package of 61 percent will be assigned to an international expert company. The law includes a special clause to address the potential failure of the complete sale of 61 percent of INSIG. In this case, an offer will be made to domestic private Albanian subjects within three years of the start of the transfer process. The first steps to determine the process of INSIG privatization were effected in 2002 through the law “For the determination of the privatization formula of INSIG,” but the process was left incomplete. At the present time, the state has sold 39 percent of shares to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the IFC.