Cimos's fully owned Croatian subsidiary PPC Buzet signed on Wednesday the sale of the 97.42% share in Labinprogres-TPS to the Šušnjevica-based company Entrada, the regional representative for Italian motor maker Lombardini.

Both the Croatian farming machinery maker and its Serbian subsidiary are to continue production on the same locations and with the same staff for at least the next five years, Cimos wrote.

The exclusion of the farming branch from Cimos Group is the first step in the restructuring of the financially troubled car parts maker, which is also collecting bids for several other subsidiaries.

Cimos thus published a call to bidders for the Kamnik-based white tempered alloy maker Cimos Titan in early August, and for its hydro power plant equipment maker Litostroj Power and Bosnian subsidiary Cimos Srebrenica in late September.

According to unaudited results, the Cimos Group generated a net loss of EUR 11.5m in the first half of 2013, while it posted a small profit in the same period last year. Group sales were also down almost 9% year-on-year to EUR 205.5m.

On the other hand, the core company saw sales rise 8% to EUR 213m, with net profit rising by a tenth to EUR 2.2m.

The group, which employed some 7,000 people in Slovenia and abroad prior to Wednesday's sale, meanwhile posted a net loss of EUR 97m for 2012, which was however largely due to write-downs and impairments.

Upon a green light from the European Commission, the car parts maker received in late July a state guarantee for a EUR 35m liquidity loan, which is to help the company through restructuring.