Elektroprivreda Crne Gore has a legal deadline until September 26 to sell the package of shares it owns. The government gave consent to that state-owned company to go public with that package.
After two failed tenders, EPCG received approval from the government in Podgorica to place ten percent of its shares on the stock market. This package has been owned by the company for almost three years, since it paid off the former partner from Italy A2A.
The public offering on the Montenegro Stock Exchange is scheduled for September 23 for 11.81 million shares with an initial price of EUR 4.49 each.
The deadline for the sale of those securities, which now do not carry voting rights, expires on September 26, according to the Law on Business Companies. Otherwise, EPCG will have to write them off.
EPCG initially demanded an amount many times higher than the stock market price
Montenegro owns 88.7 percent of the shares, and according to current calculations, it has 98 percent of the voting rights. No investor responded to public calls. EPCG was asking for much more than the price of the shares on the stock market, and the condition was that they should all be sold to one buyer.
Prime Minister in the technical mandate Dritan Abazović said that the government has decided to keep the possibility to buy some part of the offered package itself, if it decides to do so. He revealed that the Ministry of Capital Investments had initially proposed to the Ministry of Finance that it undertake to buy back the shares and that it had opposed it.
Minister of Finance Aleksandar Damjanović stated that the money for the purchase of shares was provided through the current budget reserve, reports Vijesti. Abazović previously said that EPCG needs to buy the failing Željezara in Nikšić from the Turkish company Tosçelik, so it needs funds for that.
By the way, the steel plant has developed a project for the construction of a solar power plant for its own needs.
The seat of EPCG is in Nikšić. It manages power plants with a total capacity of 877 mw. The company is the owner of the Pljevlja thermal power plant, the only one in the country, as well as the Perućica and Piva hydropower plants and five other small hydropower plants.
EPCG is a 100% owner of the Montenegrin Electric Distribution System (CEDIS), Rudnik uglja Pljevlja, EPCG d.o.o. from Belgrade and EPCG-solar-gradnja. He holds 51 percent in the company Zeta Energy from Danilovgrad.
EPCG shares on the Montenegro Stock Exchange are currently worth 3.6 euros, which means that the market capitalization is 425 million euros. The book value is almost double.
Source: balkangreenenergynews.com
