VSŽ Inc., Košice, who negotiated the purchase of the Czech engineering company Škoda Plzeň Inc., has failed to meet Škoda owners' financial requests, according to Škoda officials. VSŽ vice-president, Anton Jura, had a different view on matter, saying the conditions were unacceptable.
Jura added that VSŽ is contemplating the acquisition of another engineering company. "Our interest now is to attract foreign engineering companies to Slovakia," he said. VSŽ wants to create joint ventures out of some of its loss-making daughter companies, e.g. in Snina or Medzilaborce, thus providing conditions for improving their performance. At the end of 1996, VSŽ had a higher-than-20 percent stake in 94 Slovak and 15 foreign companies.
