Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – The requirements of the tender to buy Honker prepared by the bankruptcy officer exclude Intrall, the present producer of these cars.
Last week, the bankruptcy officer of the former Daewoo Motor Polska (DMP) in Lublin announced a tender to buy intellectual property to produce and sell Honker jeeps. Offers may be submitted till June 30th 2007. The call-out price amounts to nearly PLN 5m (EUR 1.3m). Surprisingly, the provisions of the tender do not allow foreign companies to apply. This means that Intrall which today leases the equipment and produces Honker will not be able to submit its offer. Intrall is registered in the UK and partially owned by Russians.
“In order to take part in the tender, a company needs to have 51 percent of its capital in Polish hands. As far as Intrall is concerned, 100 percent of the capital is owned by foreign investors”, Leszek Liszcz, DMP bankruptcy officer said.
“We are interested to continue production and submit our offer. The lawyers of International Truck Alliance, the owner of Intrall Polska, are checking whether the requirement has reasons and whether it is possible to take part in the tender”, Piotr Mazur, Intrall Polska deputy CEO said.
The Polish company delivers Honker to the army and civil services.
“According to the agreement, we can produce Honkers at least till the end of 2007”, Mr. Mazur said.
According to unofficial sources, Bumar, the state-owned company which once won the tender to deliver Honker for the Polish army in Iraq, is interested in the tender.
“We have had signals from several potential rivals. As far as Bumar is concerned… I neither confirm nor deny”, Leszek Liszcz said.
In 2003, the Russian-British consortium International Truck Alliance bought from DMP bankruptcy officer part of the equipment to produce Lublin van. In a separate agreement, Intrall leases equipment and produces Honker, mainly for the army and civil services. Piotr Mazur said however, that Honker generates only several percent of the sales and there are below 300 Honkers produced annually.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.261)