Croatia Airline attracts no investers

Croatia will announce a new offer for investors to buy up to 49 percent of its loss-making state-owned Croatia Airlines after an initial call this week found no takers, the government said Thursday.
"Early next year, when we announce the second round for initial offers after publishing the 2013 results, there will be (firms) interested in Croatia Airlines," Transport Minister Sinisa Hajdas Doncic was quoted by the state-run HINA news agency as saying.
Doncic said that the expiry of a 30-day deadline late Wednesday with no bids in the first offer was "nothing dramatic".

He predicted that 2013 results would show the carrier, which lost 49 million euros ($67 million), was profitable.
The Croatian government would retain control of the airline after the planned partial privatisation, and hopes to inject the cash raised back into the struggling carrier, which serves over a dozen western European cities.
Croatia, which joined the European Union this year, is highly dependent on tourism to its Adriatic coast.
The carrier transported 1.9 million passengers in 2012, but passenger numbers decreased by five percent in the first six months of this year, shaving 10 million euros from revenue.
Croatia Airlines employs 1,100 people and has seven medium-haul Airbus 320 family aircraft plus six Bombardier Q-400 regional turboprops.