Preparatory hearing was concluded before the Commercial Court regarding the lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Finance (MF) against Crnogorska Plovidba Kotor over a debt of 2.4 million euros, which the government paid on behalf of the company to the Chinese Exim Bank for the purchase of two ships in 2021.
The lawsuit was filed in 2022, and according to Bojana Ćirović, the Protector of Property and Legal Interests, there is no information suggesting that Crnogorska Plovidba has settled the debt in the meantime.
Slobodan Rašković, the acting executive director of Crnogorska Plovidba, stated that the company had been paying off its debts to the state and that part of the debt for this semi-annual loan installment had been paid. However, he pointed out that market conditions were such that the ships could not be employed, and as a result, they were unable to repay the debt. Crnogorska Plovidba is fully owned by the state.
Rašković further noted that after the final loan installment is paid, the ships could be used for another 10 to 15 years, and the income from their exploitation would be directed toward repaying the debt. Even after the ships are decommissioned, he expects multimillion-euro revenue from their sale. He mentioned that the annual loan installments are about five million euros, adding that this amount is significant for the company, with approximately 30 million euros remaining to be repaid. Judge Radmila Perović has scheduled the main hearing for this dispute for February 20th next year.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs stated that Crnogorska Plovidba could not independently pay the January installment of 2.47 million euros, which is why the state took over the payment on behalf of the installment for the ships “Kotor” and “21. May,” for which the government had provided guarantees. The Ministry emphasized that both of Montenegro’s shipping companies, Crnogorska and Barska Plovidba, are in a difficult situation, as they must not only meet regular obligations and loan repayments but also repay funds received through illegal state aid.
The Competition Protection Agency previously informed Pobjeda that plans were in place to recover the illegal state aid from the former Ministry of Capital Investments. It was noted that the government had paid 32.3 million euros on behalf of Crnogorska Plovidba for the loan, and the company had returned 851,000 euros to the budget. Through capitalization in favor of the government in 2017, the debt was reduced to 28.3 million euros. It was then stated that, if the market price remained stable for an extended period, it would take the company about 14 years to repay the entire amount.
