Tenders called by the city of Pecs to sell its airport as well as a 49pc stake in its famous Zsolnay porcelain factory have been declared unsuccessful.
The local council offered the airport for HUF 3bn, along with HUF 1.1bn of loans, on the condition the buyer would continue to operate it for 25 years. Some parties showed interest in the sale, among them a flight instruction school, but no bids were submitted by the deadline.
A bid was made for the 49pc stake in the Zsolnay porcelain factory, but the bidder withdrew its offer because it said it did not have the support of the local council’s opposition.
Pecs is looking for a minority investor with the aim of modernising the Zsolnay factory and covering costs related to the city of Pecs’s programme for 2010, when it takes the European Capital of Culture title, Deputy Mayor Bertalan Toth said earlier.
Zsolnay needs HUF 1.5bn to modernise its plant and cover the cost of transforming the area around the manufacturing base into a cultural quarter — a key element of Pecs’s European Capital of Culture Programme — but only about half of that amount is available right now, Mr Toth said.