Montenegro To Sign Deal for 18.3% Stake in its Power Utility EPCG with Italy's A2A

The contract will be signed by Montenegrin deputy Prime Minister Vujica Lazovic and Renato Ravanelli, a high-ranking A2A executive, at 1700 local time (1500 GMT) in Podgorica, the Montenegrin government said in a statement posted on its website.

A2A already owns 17.2% of EPCG which it acquired earlier this year on the local stock exchange for some 140 million euro ($200 euro).

In August, Montenegro started talks on the privatisation deal with A2A which had offered a price of 8.4 euro per share.

A Greek consortium comprising Golden Energy One Holdings Limited and Public Power Corporation S.A had pitched a higher bid of 11.1 euro per share but it was rejected by the advisory commission for failing to meet the tender requirements.

Montenegro launched the tender for the 18.3% stake in EPCG on February 2. The stake is divided 50/50 into 11,457,357 existing shares owned by the state and an equal number of new EPCG shares the state will issue. Montenegro now owns 70.6% of EPCG and the remainder is held by a number of minority shareholders.

The government in Podgorica did not set a call price in the tender but required the successful bidder to buy out the stakes of the minority shareholders at a price equal to the one it would pay for the state-owned shares.

EPCG shares rose 1.04% to 7.85 euro on NEX Montenegro and were 1.22% higher at 7.84 euro on Montenegro Stock Exchange, the country’s other bourse, on Thursday.
 
($=0.6996 euro)