If the Swiss company "8B Capital" does not pay the debt to the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) by May 12th that arose from the contract for the lease of production capacities of the Niksic Steel Plant (Steelworks and Forge), the state-owned energy company plans to initiate court proceedings to collect that debt.
This was officially confirmed by "News" at EPCG, which sent a notification Igor Chamiz, to a representative of a Swiss company that it had unilaterally terminated the lease agreement for the steelworks Čeličana and Kovačnica.
"The notice itself states that if the tenant does not settle the lease obligations by May 12th, Elektroprivreda will be forced to pursue the payment through the courts. So far, we have sent him three written notices that he must settle the obligations in accordance with the signed contract. This is also stipulated in the contract itself, which gives us the right to unilaterally terminate it if the tenant does not settle the obligations, including paying the rent and taking over the workers from the Steel Plant," he told "Vijesti" yesterday. Miro Vračar, Executive Manager of the EPCG Production functional unit.
As he explained, he will seek payment of the claim through the courts in Montenegro, while the court in Geneva would have jurisdiction only in the event of arbitration, which will not take place in the aforementioned case.
"If there were any investment activities that would involve an investment assessment and the subject of arbitration, then the court in Geneva would have jurisdiction. However, since nothing was invested, nor were there any investment activities, our court has jurisdiction to collect claims based on the lease," explained Vračar.
The lease agreement, which was signed in July last year, stipulates that EPCG may terminate the agreement if "8B Capital" fails to pay the rent in accordance with the agreement and if it fails to pay within 45 days from the date it received a written notice of non-payment.
“In the event of any dispute between the parties in connection with this contract, the parties will endeavor to resolve the dispute amicably. The parties agree that all disputes arising out of/or in connection with this contract shall be finally settled under the rules of arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce by three arbitrators. The place of arbitration shall be Geneva - Switzerland.”
The energy company said that they have issued seven invoices for payment, that the debt for the lease is 223.000 euros plus VAT, and the debt for the transfer of employees is 644.000 euros. "8B Capital" has so far paid only 31.000 euros for the lease and a deposit of 30.000, which was stipulated in the tender.
The tenant was obliged to pay a monthly rent of 31 thousand euros, starting from October 1, and out of seven rents, as previously stated by EPCG, they paid only two. As for the number of employees, according to the Contract, they had to take on 150 employees in half a year, and the tenant did not take on a single one, but the salaries of the employees were paid from EPCG funds, and they were engaged in the construction of solar power plants and concrete blocks. EPCG Željezara Nikšić previously said that the workers in the last quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year were earning salaries. The steel plant has 249 permanent employees and 11 under a temporary contract.
"From the first day we said we were skeptical, but we didn't want to make a big deal out of it so we wouldn't be accused of being against investors and labor. Of course, from the very beginning, the aforementioned investor didn't show anything to justify the chance he was given, because in half a year nothing was done to prepare the facilities for starting production, even though Igor Šamiz and some of his engineers came to the Steel Plant and announced the start of production in June," the president of the EPCG Steel Plant Trade Union Nikšić told "Vijesti" yesterday. Ivan Vujović.
According to him, what is most important is that EPCG and the Steel Plant, as well as the workers, complied with everything that was required of them by the investor.
"The workers the investor needed were always available, which is a sufficient indication that we were not the problem. The problem was obviously money, as it turned out, since the rent was not paid. To be honest, we are glad that the contract was terminated because we are tired of irresponsible investors who came to the Steel Mill 'like on a conveyor belt'. Most importantly, our work was not tied to the investor and the launch of the Steel Mill and Forge, as we have said in the previous period," Vujović pointed out.
"If there were any investment activities that would imply an investment assessment and the subject of arbitration, then the court in Geneva would have jurisdiction. However, since nothing was invested, nor were there any investment activities, our court has jurisdiction to collect claims based on the lease," explained Vračar.
The contract was signed in July 2024 for a period of 50 years, and the company "8B Capital" committed to investing 7,75 million within a year from the date of signing the contract and starting production, while in five years, as stated in the offer, it will invest 36,85 million.
Three days ago, "Vijesti" sent a question to Šamiz - how many installments he paid for the lease, why he didn't take on the workers, why he signed the contract if he thought it wasn't well-written, and whether he didn't check the situation at the steelworks before deciding to lease. No answer was received to the questions.
Vujović: There is no fear of bankruptcy
As Vujović said, after signing the debt rescheduling agreement with the Tax Administration and the parent company, there is no longer any "fear" that they could be "a company that would be in fear of bankruptcy."
"This is supported by the work that has shown in the last six months that the workers of the Steel Plant know how to work and want to work. It is obvious that we were not to blame for the tax debt incurred in 2024. The responsibility lies with someone else, probably the management at the time. The meeting in October at the Ministry of Energy certainly changed everything when we increased work almost four times, which led to the fact that in 2025 we have positive balances at the end of every month. Most importantly, we have guarantees from EPCG that we will have work in the coming period, and we can say that we will respond to all requests that are made to us in the best possible way," said the President of the Union.
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