A sale of claims registered by the National Property Fund (FNM) against its debtors will depend on the potential recovery rate. „If bids to buy our claims are as low as were the latest bids made to the government bailout agency Slovenska Konsolidacna (SKo), the FNM will not sell the claims,“ said FNM president Jozef Kojda at a press conference on Thursday. He added that the sale of claims with a recovery rate lower than 1 percent is not reasonable.

According to Mr. Kojda, if the FNM does not succeed in selling the claims, it will continue to enforce claims by hired agencies. FNM is not considering forming another joint company for claims administration. Mr. Kojda also underlined the imminent FNM interest in enforcement of the claims through bankruptcy proceedings. Claims toward companies in bankruptcy proceedings represent a significant portion of the packages the FNM is prepared to sell.

At present the FNM is prepared to sell three claims packages, each at a nominal value of about SKK 1 billion. Taking into account that the FNM has been planning to sale these claims for a longer period of time and sales were interrupted by parliamentary elections in September 2002, the content of individual packages will have to be revised. Mr. Kojda expects interest from those subjects that formerly showed interest in buying SKo claims or social security provider Socialna Poistovna.