EPCG is willing to offer Uniprom, in addition to the already existing discount, an additional incentive measure

Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) is ready to offer Uniprom, in addition to the already existing discount, an additional incentive measure that the company can use to pay the gross wages of employees in primary production. This was decided at an extraordinary meeting of the EPCG Board of Directors.

"That stimulating measure will be a matter of negotiations, for which we are open. We are investing so much energy to meet Uniprom and we will certainly not participate in the shutdown of the aluminum plant, but our intentions all along have been for Uniprom KAP to continue the continuous production of primary aluminum", said the chief financial officer of EPCG, Miro Vračar, after the meeting of the Board of Directors.

As he pointed out, Uniprom's offer for Elektroprivreda to take over the management of KAP does not have the formal and legal character of an offer, but can be treated as a letter of intent.

In addition, EPCG is not registered for the performance of aluminum production activities, and changes in registered activities, according to the Statute, are not within the competence of the Board of Directors. This can be done by the Shareholders' Assembly, i.e. the majority owner whose representative is the Government of Montenegro.

"In the case of Uniprom's business decision to suspend the production of primary aluminum, EPCG will sell the quantities of electricity that it would be obliged to provide for production on the market, from which the dividend can be paid according to the decision of the shareholders, which would create the conditions to from the budget, they finance obligations towards employees in the primary production of aluminum in KAP", said Board member Rajko Radusinović.

The board of directors, as announced to the journalists, will inform the majority shareholder with a letter of intent, which would be determined in relation to him in the appropriate procedure.

"EPCG continues to express its willingness to negotiate with the Unipro company on the price and contracted amount of electricity for the next year," said Radusinović.

As he pointed out with Uniprom, if there are negotiations, they will try to agree on the amount of energy supplied and the price per megawatt hour.

"It is up to the majority owner, as part of the incentive measures, that based on the realized positive effects of electricity, he can use it for payment and obligations towards KAP. The market is open, Uniprom is a trader on the electricity market just like Elekreprivreda, the stock market is also open to him and the market, he can buy energy wherever he wants if he can more favorably and cheaper than he can do in EPCG. For now we see that he can't. We have given discounts from the beginning. Today, those parameters on the basis of which we determined our initial elementary ones are significantly above of those who were at the moment when we determined it, and that price changes from day to day. On Friday, it was around 195,7 euros on the annual market, and today it is already 212-217 per MGW/h. We don't have to to talk about the instability of the market. Uniprom himself knows what the situation is on the stock market," said Vračar.

As he emphasized, they are open for negotiations and discussions, but only in part of the conclusions reached.

"Our achieved results will depend on the positive effects based on the sale of the amount of electricity that should be provided for KAP. We pay all the effects of our positive business into the state budget. The state is our majority owner and it will decide on incentive measures for KAP employees if make a decision to stop production", emphasized Vračar.

Member of the Board of Directors, Aleksandar Dožić, pointed out that they are trying to find a solution to the extent that it will not cause damage to EPCG.

"We are ready for further dialogues up to the point where the stability of the energy system of Montenegro, i.e. EPCG, will not be threatened," said Dožić.