PODGORICA (Montenegro), April 9 (SeeNews) – Montenegro said on Friday it has received no bids in the tender for 54% of the company operating the container and general cargo terminals in the country’s biggest Adriatic port of Bar.
Transport Minister Andrija Lompar said the government would soon launch a new tender.
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“We are a little disappointed, as four investors bought documents […] but at the end they decided not to file offers,” Lompar said.
Lompar was speaking at the opening of the bids filed in the tenders for two other companies operating at the port of Bar - one in charge of maritime affairs and the other one in charge of security and firefighting, and for rail transport company Montecargo. An audio file with his comments was uploaded on the government’s website.
He added the tender commission identified two main reasons why the four potential investors were reluctant to file offers.
“The first one is that the 54% stake we put up for sale was not large enough for them to feel comfortable in the future managing of the port,” he said.
The potential bidders wanted more than two-thirds of ownership to make sure that minority shareholders would not block their future business decisions .
“The other reason is they considered the social programme extremely heavy and expensive for them,” Lompar said.
“We will certainly draw some conclusions from their remarks and will try to solve these two problems as fast as possible and very soon open a new tender.”
Lompar did not name the four potential bidders for Container Terminal and General Cargo Bar.
Earlier this year local media reported investors from Italy, Britain, Beirut and Dubai were eyeing the Montenegrin company. Serbian Infrastructure Minister Milutin Mrkonjic was quoted as saying the government of landlocked Serbia and three Serbian firms had formed a consortium to take part in the tender for Container Terminal and General Cargo Bar.
Romanian consortium Grampet placed the sole bid in the tender for 85.45% of Montecargo, the Montenegrin government said on its website but gave no details. Grampet has offered to pay 1.65 million euro ($2.2 million) for the majority stake in the rail freight company, Montenegrin state broadcaster RTCG reported on Friday.
Lompar said one bid was filed for 100% of Security and Firefighting Bar and two - for 100% of Maritime Affairs. He did not elaborate.
Transport Ministry officials were not immediately available to provide further details but RTCG reported that local consortium Guardian, based in Niksic, has filed the sole bid for the port’s security and firefighting company. RTCG added that Bar-based firm Nimont has offered 640,000 euro and Italy’s Interlog has offered 2.15 million euro for the port's maritime affairs operator.
($=0.7430 euro)