They are looking for a meeting, because they have 80 million to finish "Ace"

The company "Nega tours Montenegro", the owner of the unfinished hotel complex "As" in Perazića dol, asked to meet with Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić and Minister of Economic Development Jakov Milatović, at which they would present a way out of the two-decade-old problem, as well as a deadline by which would provide 80 million euros to finish the hotel.

This is written in a letter signed by Dejan Gardašević and Aleksandar Jovanović on behalf of the company's shareholders, which "Vijesti" had access to.

At the same time, they also sent a letter to the first man of Budva, Marko Bata Carević, convinced that the Municipality of Budva, for its part, "will provide support to achieve an adequate solution for this project".

They accused the previous government of not even wanting to answer their letters, but also of trying to return the hotel, as they say, to the "interest group at the top", and of using models of "coercion" against investors through moral discrediting.

Hotel "As" is synonymous with failed privatization, destruction of space and megalomaniac wishes of investors that were never realized, while one of the most beautiful bays was destroyed.

The story of the privatization of what used to be one of the most beautiful hotels on the Montenegrin coast began in 2002, when "Budvanska Riviera" sold "As" to the Montenegrin-Russian company "Nega tours" for five million marks, of which three million went to the Government and two million to Hotelska to the group. The investor pledged to invest 22 million marks in the hotel and to open it by the end of 2003. This has not happened to date, and the unfinished multi-story concrete building is still standing.

"We are addressing the Prime Minister, i.e. the Minister of Economic Development, for the establishment of a dialogue and the resolution of multi-year problems that follow the realization of, we sincerely believe, an extremely significant investment in the hotel "As" in Perazića dol. Our goal is for you to consider our offer and, after a long time, get an answer as to what to do next. Namely, during the previous convocation of the Government, we did not receive any response, although, in good faith, we asked them to consider our proposals. We are convinced that the time of silence of the state administration has ended with the election of the new government. And such an attitude of the previous government had and still has the consequence that the project was stopped, the previous investments of almost 50 million euros were left to the test of time, and that there was no initiative on the part of the state except for the initiated court case, where the state sued legal entities that were neither the book owners, nor the signatories of the contract on the privatization of the hotel", the letter to the prime minister and relevant minister states.

They claim that because of all this they are put in a difficult situation as investors.

"On the one hand, we started an extremely valuable investment, even for areas larger than our own Montenegro, and on the other hand, our business partners and possible sources of financing, including OTP Bank, cannot get answers from the Government of Montenegro on the letters they sent a long time ago. We all think together that we have to answer the question, are there any alternatives to the current position of investment realization? We propose to hold a meeting where we would (repeat) the proposal on defining a deadline by which we would provide financial construction in the amount of 80 million euros, open a significant number of new jobs and, only on a direct basis, provide an increase in the tax revenues of the budget of Montenegro on several grounds for at least ten million euros. "Dialogue is not everything, but without it, everything else is not important", say the shareholders.

They also delivered letters to Krivokapić and Milatović that they had previously sent to the Government, as well as a letter from OTP Bank that was not answered.

"Furthermore, and this is already for the column 'Believe it or not', the previous Minister of Tourism asked us at the last meeting to show him the payment slip from 2002, when we paid the required price for the privatization of the hotel. We later realized that it was an attempt to illegally return the hotel to HG 'Budvanska Riviera' and especially to the 'interest group at the top'. Of course, although we could have delivered these facts to the media world "hungry" for sensationalist headlines, we did not do so. We didn't do it solely because we want and want to finish the project of the hotel 'As'. Later, other models of 'coercion' were applied against us through the moral discrediting of investors and their financial destruction. We have withstood all these blows and are enduring them, firmly believing that the 'As' hotel project has a future and that the current state does not suit anyone," the letter states.

The letter was also sent to Tsarević, in which he was informed in detail about what they wrote to the Prime Minister and Minister Milatović, with the belief that the Municipality of Budva will support the completion of the hotel project.

Greeted and saw off five ministers of tourism

Although conceived as a five-star hotel complex, the extension and reconstruction of what was once one of the most attractive hotels on the Adriatic turned into Skadar na Bojana. The investor broke through the hill, built an addition of about a hundred meters, upgraded, so that the building reached 16 floors. The concrete structure welcomed and saw off the ministers of tourism from Predrag Nenezić, through Predrag Sekulić, Branimir Gvozdenović, Pavel Radulović, and now it welcomed Ratko Mitrović.

The privatization contract was not respected, so in February 2014, by signing the annex to the contract, the Government gave the investor a new chance. According to the annex, with which a guarantee of three million was given, the investor was supposed to invest at least 15 million euros in the first phase of the reconstruction and construction of the hotel, half of which by November 15, 2014.

Due to non-compliance with the obligation from the annex, the Government requested the termination of the contract at the beginning of 2016. In May 2016, the "Budvanska riviera" hotel group, by order of the Government, submitted a lawsuit to the Commercial Court for the termination of the contract. It also turned out that the warranty was not valid...

In 2016, the Ministry of Tourism filed criminal charges against the investor for providing a false bank guarantee of three million euros. The investors claimed that the guarantee was valid and that they chose Sberbank, which issued it, at the suggestion of the Government.

They filed a lawsuit against Sberbank" in Russia because, as they stated, it damaged their companies in that country because of the guarantee.

Arrest and trial for false warranty

In March of last year, the special prosecution arrested one of the owners of "Nega tours Montenegro", Neđeljko Gardašević, accusing him of abuse of authority in the economy, due to a false guarantee.

At the end of January, Gardašević denied that, as the chairman of the board of directors of the company "Montena Invest" from Cyprus, he offered an invalid bank guarantee of three million euros during the privatization of the "As" hotel in Perazića dol, and that he damaged the budget of Montenegro in that amount.

He announced this to the special council of the Podgorica High Court, before which the trial began due to accusations of abuse of authority in the economy during the privatization of hotels on the coast. In the indictment of special prosecutor Zorica Milanović, among other things, it is stated that the bank guarantee was issued by Sberbank from Moscow, and Gardašević used it to guarantee investments of 50 million euros for the reconstruction of the hotel.