The best offer for the purchase of the last aircraft of the former state-owned airline "Montenegro Airlines" was made by Bojan DragasThe aforementioned decision has not yet become final. After the decision becomes final, the bankruptcy trustee will proceed with the sale, the Commercial Court informed "Vijesti".
According to information from "Vijesti", Dragaš is a businessman from the United States of America of Montenegrin origin. He submitted his bid to the bankruptcy administration's advertisement through an authorized representative, and he plans to dismantle the plane and transport it to another location where he would turn it into a restaurant.
On March 7, the bankruptcy administrator made a decision to select Dragash as the best bidder for the Fokker 100 aircraft, at a price of 57.000,68 euros. He made the highest offer, where the starting price for this aircraft was 23.900 euros, the other two participants had lower offers. At the end of last year, the same aircraft was on sale for 33 thousand euros, but there were no buyers at that time.
The plane has no engines or main instruments and has been on the secondary runway of Podgorica airport for more than five years.
The "Vijesti" interlocutor said that it can be cut into several parts and reassembled in another location, and that there is a trend in the world to make restaurants, houses, exhibition, retail and other facilities from crashed and written-off aircraft that can no longer be airworthy.
In early February, when the sale of this last aircraft from the former fleet of the national carrier was announced for 23.900 euros, the founder of "Montenegro Airlines" and long-time director until 2013 Zoran Đurišić He appealed that the state, Aerodrom, or the new Montenegrin airline "ToMontenegro" buy this plane and turn it into a museum exhibit that would be displayed at the Podgorica airport. However, state-owned companies were not among the bidders, so this former symbol of Montenegrin aviation went to a private company.
The bankruptcy administration earned 2,2 million euros from the sale of the former airline's assets, counting the last advertisement from December last year, because the sale based on the advertisement from February this year has not yet been confirmed by the bankruptcy judge.
Bankruptcy creditors have not been paid any money from the bankruptcy estate so far.
"So far, no payments have been made to bankruptcy creditors during the bankruptcy proceedings, and payments will be made when the legal grounds for this are met, or when the court proceedings conducted to determine the merits of the bankruptcy creditors' claims are completed," the Commercial Court announced.
The bankruptcy administration previously acknowledged 33,8 million claims from the former airline, out of a total of 169,7 million. Several lawsuits are pending before the Commercial Court over disputed claims.
So the amount of money collected so far from the sale of assets cannot cover even ten percent of confirmed claims. The Commercial Court did not answer what is left of the former company's assets that have not been sold.
"A portion of the movable and immovable property remains for sale, while part of the former administrative building, located on Beogradska Street, has been leased to the company 'ToMontenegro'. The plan is to cash in on that property, as well as all other assets of the bankrupt debtor," the Commercial Court announced.
The Competition Protection Agency, in a decision in September 2020, ordered the then Ministry of Transport to suspend any further state aid to "Montenegro Airlines" and initiated an investigation into previous state aid to the company. On December 26, the new government announced at a press conference that it could no longer pay money to the airline, and the very next day the board of directors (which was still from the previous government) made a decision to suspend all flights.
In April 2021, the company was placed under bankruptcy due to a tax debt of 12 million euros. The total debts were around 170 million euros. The company still owes its workers seven months of net earnings, as well as three years of service, which they are claiming from the bankruptcy estate.
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