Dubai Businessman Buys Mostar Tobacco Factory

Jassim Abdullah Ibrahim Alhuwai is buying the Mostar Tobacco Factory in Bosnia and Herzegovina after making the best offer at public sale, reports the Sarajevo Times.

Alhuwai will pay BAM6 million ($3.4 million) for the factory. He has already paid BAM10,000 as a deposit and has been given a deadline of April 22 to pay the remainder.

“I hope that the investor from Dubai will pay the money by the appointed deadline and that our agony will end, that there will be the bridging of our service periods and that some money will be paid to us,” former Mostar worker Aida Kajtaz said.

This was not the first attempt to sell the factory. Previously, Mirsad Rahimic, a Swiss entrepreneur and Mostar native, attempted to buy the factory, but there were a number of complications that arose during the purchase process.

Production at the factory ended in 2007, but workers campaigned to restart manufacturing.  

Mostar Tobacco Factory complex has an estimated value of BAM21 million, but due to lawsuits and debts, the Mostar Municipal Court declared that the complex should have been sold for BAM3 million.