Coning Becomes Owner with 5%

Coning won the bidding for building an apartment village in Samobor, a benchmark case of illegal selling, claims DC.

The opposition in Samobor, led by a Democratic Centre (DC) town councillor, Marijan Luksic, accuses coalition the Croatian People's Party-Croatian Social Liberal Party-Croatian Democratic Union (HNS-HSLS-HDZ) of acting in favour of the Coning Company to buy land worth 17 million kuna. 

A plan was to build an apartment village with 178 apartments on the land. The city allowed the Coning Company to register as an owner after paying five percent of the price. At the same time, it was a guarantee for the bank for paying off the city.

Radimir Cacic, HNS owned the Coning Company, but he transferred his ownership to a solicitor a few years ago.

The chairman of the Board, Stanko Kovac, claims that he was the one, not Cacic, who closed the deal in Samobor. Kovac was the head of Croatian Highways as an assistant to the minister at that time, Cacic. Kovac is a member of HNS.

The contract is a precedent

-It is a sort of precedent because by the contract the buyer is allowed to write the right of ownership who did not pay off the money – said Marijan Luksic. He said that an invitation to tender was announced during the holidays last year, adding that more companies would have come forward, not just Coning.

He says that the whole situation reminds him of HDZ privatisation when a company was bought without money.

-It is favouring through an invitation to tender. If you look at proper documentation on the surface, there are numerous things that are in contradiction to practice – claims Luksic saying that it does not matter who owns Conning. For him, as a town councillor, the interest of Samobor is the most important.