BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia’s only carmaker, the producer of the much-maligned Yugo, will be sold next year, the government said Thursday.
In an advertisement published in the Politika daily, Serbia’s Privatization Agency said nearly 90 percent of the company’s shares will be sold in April.
Zastava, based in the central city of Kragujevac, first exported the Yugo to the United States in 1986, when it sold for less than $4,000.
The Yugo was derided by critics, including Consumer Reports magazine, which said it “barely qualified as a car.” The Yugo was removed from the U.S. market in the early 1990s following U.S. sanctions against Yugoslavia, and Zastava faltered as the nation plunged into civil war.
Serbia’s privatization minister, Mladjan Dinkic, said he expected at least two major international companies to take part in the bidding for Zastava. He did not elaborate.
