Slovakia: U.S. company to invest hundreds of millions in the country

AP Worldstream
06-08-2006
Dateline: BRATISLAVA, Slovakia
A financial group from the United States plans to invest hundreds of millions in a new plant in eastern Slovakia that would produce composite materials for automotive and maritime industries, a government statement said Thursday.

The Delaware-based Simonstein and Henriks Finance Corp. has pledged it would invest some euro438 million (US$564 million) for the two-year development of a factory in the eastern Slovak town of Spisky Hrnov, according to a statement by the government's Agency for Attracting Foreign Investments.

Gerard Leroux, a representative for the investor, was quoted as saying that production in the new plant was scheduled to start by 2008 and that the investment was prompted by the "suitable investment environment in Slovakia."

The investment would create more than 1,000 jobs and boost the development of Slovakia's east where the unemployment rate is 15 percent, the statement said.

Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda was also quoted as saying that the state would allocate some 5 percent of the overall investment for the development of roads and infrastructure in the Spisky Hrnov region.

No officials from the Simonstein and Henriks Finance Corp. were available Thursday for comment and an Internet search yielded no information about the company.

At a news conference later on Wednesday, Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Miklos has also refused to provide more details about the investor, the TASR news agency reported. Miklos said only that the initial information about the investor came "from the Prince of Liechtenstein" and that he considered that "a serious one."

The announcement about the investment comes less than 10 days before June 17 general elections. Dzurinda's ruling coalition is struggling to win a third consecutive term, but his Slovak Democratic and Christian Union has the support of just 11.4 percent of voters, while his key rival Robert Fico and his Social Democracy party lead the polls with 32 percent.

Copyright 2006, AP News All Rights Reserved