PODGORICA (Montenegro), April 26 (SeeNews) – Polish company OT Logistics has said the decision of the Montenegrin government to cancel the sale of a 30% stake in port operator Luka Bar [MNG:LUBA] and 51% shareholding in rail freight firm Montecargo is completely incomprehensible.
The decision of the Montenegrin authorities is surprising, in view of the development of the tender procedure to date as well as the successfully completed negotiations, OT Logistics said in a statement on Tuesday.
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"The decision of the new government of Montenegro is a surprise to us, especially in the context of full transparency of the privatisation process. Negotiations have been successfully completed in March and we had not received any signals as to a possibility of cancelling the tender,” OT Logistics CEO, Zbigniew Nowik, said in the statement.
OT Logistics is currently investigating the matter and will inform the market about any new developments upon receiving more comprehensive information from its partners in Montenegro, the Polish company said.
Montenegrin transport minister Osman Nurkovic said on Monday the country has terminated the talks for the sale of the state-owned stakes in Luka Bar and Montecargo to OT Logistics as the selected privatisation model was not in the best interests of the seller.
The Polish firm offered to buy a 30% stake in Luka Bar for 8.52 million euro ($9.29 million) as well as 51% of Montecargo for 2.5 million euro. The company additionally committed to conducting investment and modernisation programmes at both companies worth a total of some 17.45 million euro.
($ = 0.917206 euro)