PODGORICA (Montenegro), August 29 (SeeNews) – The Montenegrin government and Italy’s A2A have signed a new shareholders agreement to extend until December 31, 2016, the joint management of power utility EPCG, the country's economy ministry said on Monday.
The deal was signed between the economy minister Vladimir Kavaric and A2A representative Oreste Bramanti, the ministry said in a statement.
The document was approved by the country's government and parliament back in July.
The new agreement fully protects the interests of the government, particularly in regard to the construction of the second unit of thermal power plant Pljevlja, which will be implemented by EPCG without government guarantees, the ministry noted.
It sets out pre-emptive rights meaning that A2A is obliged to tell the government if its decides to sell its shares in the co, including information on the new buyer and the conditions of the sale, while the government has the right to use its pre-emptive rights if it does not agree with the deal.
As earlier announced, the agreement also contains a put option according to which A2A is entitled to get paid a total of 250 million euro ($279.3 million) by the Montenegrin government in seven annual instalments if the Italian partner chooses to exit EPCG.
However, A2A can only activate the put option under exigent circumstances, such as effects from external markets, adverse weather conditions or significant changes to Montenegro's tax regime, Kavaric said earlier.
In July, the Montenegrin government and the Czech Republic signed a bilateral agreement paving the way for the construction of the second unit at Pljevlja.
In May last year, EPCG said Czech company Skoda Praha had filed the most favourable bid for the construction project, offering to build a 254 MW facility with electric efficiency of 39.5% for 338.5 million euro.
EPCG, which operates around 870 MW of installed capacity, plans a 5.8% decline in output this year to 2,976 GWh. The company's net profit dropped 69% to 10.8 million euro in 2015.
($= 0.8952 euro)