Announcing the sale of the Stara Pazova-based subsidiary on Friday, Gorenje said it expected interest from several companies producing water heaters and air conditioning devices.

The company said it expected bidders from Europe and the US, adding that the sale represented a continuation of the strategy of selling non-core assets and focusing on Gorenje's principal activity.

It noted that the process had been taking place even before the arrival of the new owner, Hisense, which acquired Gorenje in June 2018.

Gorenje attempted to sell Gorenje Tiki, which currently employs 30 people in Slovenia and 520 in Serbia, already last year, but the process was suspended because of the takeover by Hisense.

The company moved its production of small water heaters from Ljubljana's borough of Šiška to Serbia in 2010. The company, whose development department is based in Velenje, produces around half a million units a year.

According to the newspaper Delo, Gorenje Tiki owned 36,000 sq metres of land in Šiška, which was transferred to the core company. Gorenje has sold three-quarters of the land and is in talks to sell the remaining plots.

The sale announcement comes after Gorenje sold in December the Maribor-based waste processing company Gorenje Surovina and its subsidiaries to Eko Surovina, a fellow waste processing company owned by businessman Izet Rastoder.