Six state-owned energy companies employed an average of 5,24 thousand employees last year, and three companies reported a net profit of 50,7 million euros at the end of last year, the Action for Social Justice (ASP) announced.
Financial statements for last year showed that the three companies had a cumulative profit of 223,9 million.
"The largest net profit of 24,8 million euros was achieved by the Montenegrin Transmission System (CGES), which at the end of last year had an accumulated profit of 104,8 million, as well as 340 employees. This company showed an outflow of dividends in cash flows of around 8,5 million last year," the statement said.
The largest owners of CGES, which manages the country's transmission network, are the state of Montenegro with 55 percent of the capital, the Italian Terna with 22 percent, and Elektromreža Srbije with 15 percent.
"Electric Power Company (EPCG) reported a net profit of 10,9 million euros, and at the end of last year it had 70,1 million in accumulated profit and reported 1,18 thousand employees, while the financial statement does not show that there was a dividend payment to shareholders last year. The State of Montenegro has just over 98,5 percent of the share capital in EPCG," ASP said.
Pljevlja Coal Mine, a daughter company of EPCG, at the end of last year showed a figure of 1,25 thousand employees. Last year, it achieved a net profit of 15 million euros and has 49 million accumulated profits. This company is one of the few that transparently published a special report on the payment of fees to the state of Montenegro and the local government of Pljevlja for the past year.
The coal mine extracts coal from the Pljevlja basins to operate the Thermal Power Plant (TPP), the only dirty source of energy in the country, which is currently undergoing an ecological reconstruction phase, begun after several years of delays. The impact of the seven-month shutdown of the Pljevlja TPP on the finances of EPCG and the Coal Mine, as well as the potential impact on the price of electricity in the country for consumers, is currently difficult to assess.
Montenegrin Electricity Distribution System (CEDIS), another subsidiary of EPCG, reported a net profit of 645 euros last year, but the company has reported an accumulated loss of almost 24 million euros. It has 1,75 thousand employees.
When it comes to EPCG Solar gradnja, it reported 444 employees, as well as 92 thousand net profit, but has 4,8 million accumulated losses, while EPCG Željezara recorded a business loss of 2,1 million last year, its accumulated loss is 5,6 million, and it has 284 employees.
In total, CEDIS, EPCG Solar gradnja and EPCG Željezara have 34,3 million euros in accumulated losses, according to their financial statements for last year.
Official reports also show that the EPCG group and its four wholly-owned subsidiaries in Montenegro employ 4,9 thousand people.
EPCG has a subsidiary in Serbia, which is fully owned by it, while in Montenegro it has 51 percent ownership in the company Zeta Energy, about 33 percent in the Electricity Exchange, almost 16 percent in Green Gvozd, and also has a share of ownership in the First Bank of Montenegro.
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