Zhiti AD (Bulgaria)

Bulgaria's leading steel wire and nails producer Zhiti, which was established in 1924, is headquartered in the Danube port of Russe.
It produces and sells metalware including bolts, nuts, nails, wire rope and netting, fastenings, welding rods, hot-rolled sections, roll-formed shapes and other products.
A 67% stake in the company was offered for sale under Bulgaria's mass voucher privatisation programme in 1996-97.
The stake was acquired by several local privatisation funds, which later transformed into holding companies.
In May 1998, Bulgaria's Privatisation Agency sold a 19% stake in Zhiti to the company's employees and management for USD 346,000.
The buyer paid 10% of the price immediately in cash and covered the rest – half of which in Bulgarian government long-term bonds – over the next five years.
A total of 6.6% Zhiti's capital was offered to its employees in non-voting shares, the remaining 7.4% were offered to pre-communist land owners as compensation.
At the end of 2003, the management-employee buyout sold its stake in Zhiti to Multi Financial and Consulting Ltd. – a subsidiary of Swedish-Bulgarian firm Dorada.
As of end-2005, Dorada indirectly controlled 71% of the wire producer while the rest of the equity was held by the plant's executive director.