A secret plan to shut down "Montenegro plovidba"

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs is hiding the conditions under which it carried out the public procurement of consulting services for the preparation of an economic and financial analysis of the Montenegrin shipping companies Crnogorska plovidba AD Kotor and Barska plovidba AD Bar, as well as who will do the work that should determine the Government in making the final decision on the fate of the two maritime companies.

According to the unofficial information of "Vijesti", the professor of the Faculty of Economics in Podgorica was hired to prepare that analysis Vladimir Djurišić who is allegedly close to the ruling Europe Now Movement, the party from which the Minister of Maritime Affairs also comes Filip Radulović.

"News" from the department headed by Minister Radulović, despite promises to do so, did not answer a set of questions regarding the preparation of this analysis that were sent to them almost two weeks ago. The Faculty of Economics of the University of Montenegro told "Vijesta" that they, as a faculty, were not hired to do this analysis, but that it is possible that their professors would be hired.

In an interview for RTCG on September 15, Radulović stated that both shipping companies are in a very bad financial position and announced the completion of the economic analysis of their employment, "in four to six weeks."

"The problem is that they still cannot pay installments to the Chinese Exim bank, both in Crnogorska plovidba and in Barska plovidba. Barska plovidba still has 17 installments remaining, but they owe the state six million euros. Crnogorská plovidba has one more installment left, but they owe the state 34 million euros. We have to find a way to settle those obligations to the state. Several professors of the Faculty of Economics are currently working on the model. After that analysis is finished, we will have several options as to what and how we will work with those two companies", said Radulović at the time.

He is the information that was previously published by "Vijesti", referring to well-informed sources from the top of Crnogorska plovidba, that the minister told them that "the situation in that company is catastrophic" and that the government will push it into bankruptcy, and liquidate its two ships "Kotor ” and “Twenty-first May” to the company Barska plovidba, in an interview for RTCG he denied and called it “media spin”.

He pointed out that "he expects the analysis of the Faculty of Economics to be completed in the next four to six weeks", and that "after the analysis, he will consider all the offered options and then he will inform the companies and the public, what he will do and what concrete steps he will take."

However, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs did not respond to the "News" when and where it carried out the public procurement of consulting services for the preparation of this analysis, and how much it will cost. It was not answered whether the analysis, when it is finished, will be presented to the public, and who are its authors by name and surname.

"What are the specific recommendations of those people from the field of maritime economics and maritime shipping, and why the Ministry of Maritime Affairs decided to entrust these analyzes to them", is a question that was also not answered by Radulović's department, as well as the interest of "Vijesti" to explain. why the Ministry did not hire the Maritime Faculty from Kotor for the preparation of this document, considering the study programs and teaching staff of that faculty, which are closely specialized, among other things, in the field of maritime transport, shipping economics and maritime management.

The Faculty of Economics from Podgorica confirmed to "Vijesta" that the Ministry of Maritime Affairs contacted them with the request that the faculty be the bearer of the preparation of the economic and financial analysis of these two maritime companies with a proposal for overcoming existing problems in business and their long-term sustainability.

"The answer of the Faculty of Economics was that it is not in an objective capacity as an institution to do the above analysis", announced the Dean's Office of this faculty.

They did not answer if they knew who the experts who do this work for the Ministry of Maritime Affairs are, pointing out that "professors of the Faculty of Economics, as independent experts, independently or in a team with other professors and/or experts outside the Faculty, have the opportunity to participate in the development of various economic analyses."

"However, the Faculty of Economics was not involved in that case in any way. Bearing in mind that a similar analysis was done by a number of our professors for the needs of railway companies, the Faculty of Economics informed the competent ministry and shipping companies about it. We have had no further information or communication on this matter", said the management of the Faculty of Economics.

The deans of the Maritime Faculty in Kotor told "Vijesta" that the Ministry of Maritime Affairs did not address that institution with a request to create an economic analysis of the operations of two Montenegrin shipping companies and their future prospects on the market, while the management of Crnogorska plovidba did not respond to the question of whether they perhaps they themselves ordered such an analysis from the Faculty of Economics, or possibly sought expert help from the Maritime Faculty in Kotor.

According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", the manager of the analysis is assistant professor Vladimkir Đurišić (36), who, among other things, teaches strategic management at the Faculty of Economics. Among other things, at the end of 2021, Đurišić published his author's text in the media "Why is the program Europe now important!" which is the backbone of the political program of the party of the same name. According to the available data, Đurišić has not had any contact with shipping and the maritime economy, that is, the very specific way of doing business for shipping companies on the challenging and dynamic world market of shipping space.

"Vijesti" sources claim that Đurišić was at the head of the team of the Faculty of Economics, which was ordered by two majority state enterprises "Maintenance of Railway Rolling Stock" (OŽVS) and "Railway Transport of Montenegro" (ŽPCG) and with the approval of the then Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, which was also led by Filip Radulović, in February of this year he made an analysis of the justification of the merger of OŽVS with ŽPCG. The analysis stated that it is necessary for ŽPCG to urgently annex OŽVS, whose bankruptcy would threaten railway traffic. In this case, if they declare their disagreement with this move, the state, as the majority owner of the railway companies, would pay up to 2,3 million euros to the small shareholders of both companies. It was precisely the variant of the merger of the two railway companies that was proposed by Minister Radulović at the time, emphasizing that it was "the best solution and that it was shown by the analyzes of the Faculty of Economics and consultants from the European Union."

A similar thing is happening now, where Radulović has already threatened the management of Crnogorska plovidba that the state will liquidate that company and transfer its ships to Barska plovidba. However, the state is the sole owner of Crnogorska plovidba, and this is not the case in Barska, so the Government would increase not only its own, but also the capital of private shareholders in that company by possibly shutting down Crnogorska and transferring its ships to Barska. In Montenegro, where it is the sole owner, the government can make all business decisions on its own, while in Barska it cannot do so without the consent of private minority shareholders, so in the event that this scenario is realized, the state would either have to pay off dissenting minority shareholders, or he practically gave them a share in the ownership of two more transoceanic ships that he was transporting from Montenegro.

In addition, in January of the following year, Montenegro will repay the last installment of the loan taken for the construction of the ships "Kotor" and "Dvadestprvi Maj" to the Chinese Exim Bank, thereby becoming able to mortgage those vessels with another lender and obtain funds for the purchase of additional ships. . This is not the case with Barska, which needs to repay its two ships to the Chinese for more than eight years.

By the way, Crnogorska plovidba, according to the reports published on the website of the Tax Administration, after a series of years in which it operated under the DPS-SDP administration in its boards of directors, operated with losses of millions, in the last three years it has been operating positively. For the first time since its foundation, the company was "in the red" in 2021, which it ended with a symbolic net profit of 39.696 euros. The following year, 2022, which during most of the year was characterized by a significant increase in freight rates on the world market, the company ended with a net profit in the amount of 2.374.554 euros, while the last year, in which there was a drop in freight rates again, CP ended with a net profit in the amount of 165.084 euros.

Both ships of this company are currently sailing in time charter for foreign charterers at daily rents of 11.000 and 11.200 dollars, which, taking into account the operating costs of the company, means that the ships have a net profit of just over 8.000 dollars every day.

Association of Captains: The maritime tradition of Boka would be buried

Because of such intentions of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, which it tries to "cover up" with an analysis whose ordering and authors it does not want to tell the public about, the Association of Sea Captains of Montenegro from Kotor also condemned, which announced that the eventual decision to shut down Crnogorska plovidba "contradicts the principle of reasonable householder" (diligents paterfamilias)".

The Association said that, if such plans are implemented, "the centuries-old tradition of maritime shipping in the Bay of Kotorska and Montenegro, and thus the spirit of maritime management in Kotor as the most famous maritime environment in Montenegro, would be buried, which according to us, in the long in the previous period, it was not properly recognized and valorized."

Therefore, the Association of Maritime Captains of Montenegro called on the Ministry of Maritime Affairs to "not make political decisions in this regard and to engage, in a timely manner, in a transparent manner, a relevant foreign evaluator maritime house whose task would be to review the state of both maritime companies, including the ownership structure, the current situation and future developments in the maritime market."

"Taking into account all the received parameters and proposals, the Ministry would, on the basis of them, propose to the Government to make a decision on the future status of these companies, that is, Montenegrin maritime shipping. We expect that the maritime public would also be familiar with these proposals. We believe that our reasons would be confirmed by this independent study and that Crnogorska plovidba from Kotor, in the current or changed ownership relationship, could continue to sail independently and successfully in all the seas and oceans of the world at the beginning of the year", said the Association of Sea Captains of Montenegro. Above.