The company "Maestral Hotels & Casino", which manages the casino of the same name and the elite hotel complex "Maestral" in Pržno, operated with a loss of 1,2 million euros last year.
In the note sent with the financial statements to the Revenue and Customs Administration, they state that one of the reasons for the poor result was that they could not attract new clients to the casino due to the bad political situation.
In that document, which was signed on February 15 of this year by the executive director Hristos Cemperas, it is also stated that they hope that the political situation will improve during the presidential elections in March, which will also affect their better business.
The majority owner of this company, through offshore companies from the United Arab Emirates, is a businessman of Chinese-Malaysian origin, Wei Seng Pua.
He also received Montenegrin citizenship during the rule of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS).
In the presidential elections, the first round of which was held on March 19 and the second on April 2, the current president, Milo Đukanović, lost, and the "Europe Now" candidate, Jakov Milatović, won. Đukanović's DPS has been in the opposition since December 2020.
According to the documentation submitted to "Vijesta" today, his business partner Petros Statis sold his share in the casino in July 2018 to the company "Fasamo limited" from Dubai, in which Pua now owns 90 percent.
Big players from Asia would come
"Raising the interest of new clientele, and even maintaining existing clientele, will be very difficult if the political situation does not improve. The elections planned for March raise hopes that this instability will be resolved. The business environment suffers severely from uncertainty about the country's future. Combined with some local long-term unresolved issues, there is a risk that the impact of tourism and the number of visits will be significantly lower than expected, as indicated by various decision makers in the economic sphere," the document from February stated.
That "correction of the political situation", as stated, would be "ideal for the revival of the Asian market of large casino players, which was invested in and which was the key sustainable scenario of 'Maestral' investments".
Pua and Statis control the company "Adriatic Properties", which is the tenant of the complex of St. Stefan and Miločer, has launched an international arbitration against the new authorities because they allowed citizens to pass through this complex, while the former DPS government gave them the right to restrict access.
"Maestral" has had a negative business in the last four years. In 2019, the loss was 4,9 million, in the year of the covid pandemic, 2020, the loss was 7,3 million, while in 2021 it was 1,4 million.
"The revival of the Asian market of large casino players is crucial for the survival of the company and the amortization of the total investment. 'Maestral', with the appropriate management, will achieve positive EBITDA even without this market, but it cannot generate the amounts necessary for the timely repayment of investment loans. Before the end of the first half of the year (year 2023), the loan restructuring plan must be adopted. It should be borne in mind that the company has been operating for eight years. At the end of the tenth year, large investments will be necessary, in order to maintain competitiveness, despite the current good condition", it was stated in the note of the company's management.
Casinos account for 65 percent of revenue
The report also states that 65 percent of the company's income comes from casino income, as well as that the hotel business is profitable only during the summer season, and that in the rest of the year it is in loss.
"The casino lost some regular guests who came over the summer, especially from Russia, and who had private apartments in the Budva area. The last three months of 2022 were above expectations, as the charter program from Italy continued with selected casino players and due to MICE activities in the hotel," the report stated.
The management of the company complains in the notes that labor costs have continued to rise, as well as that "severe restrictions on the local labor market for the tourism industry" continue.
Bonus video:
