The management of the maritime company "Crnogorska plovidba" and the leadership of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, headed by the Minister Filip Radulović, deceived the potential buyer of the company's ships, EOS Group from Turkey, that allegedly due to the annual vacation and the inaction of the courts in Montenegro, the mortgage on the ship "Kotor" could not be registered, which was the condition of the Turks to pay the Montenegrin company a down payment for the purchase of that ship and the ship "Dvadeset prvi maj".
Officially, this is why the sale of the ships to the Turks, who were willing to pay $16 million for them, failed, almost $3 million more than the Danish company K/S Navision Group, to which the two ships were later sold.
Data from the Court of First Instance shows that over the last two months, Crnogorska plovidba, as the owner, has not submitted any request to that court for registration of a mortgage on either of the company's two ships, which would be a guarantee that the company will actually sell the two ships to the buyer after the buyer pays the down payment.
They are on duty in August too.
"Regarding the question of whether a request was submitted to the Commercial Court during August and September 2025 to register a mortgage on the merchant ship "Kotor" or "Dvadeset prvi maj" of the company Crnogorska plovidba, I inform you that such requests were not submitted to the court, and that the work in the court during collective annual holidays is organized in such a way that at any time during the holiday a judge on duty is assigned to act in urgent cases," the Commercial Court officially announced to "Vijesti" (News).
The Government, which gave its consent to the sale of Crnogorska plovidba ships in an electronic session on September 16, announced at the time that, based on the bids collected in the advertisement, they entered into negotiations with the first-place bidder from Turkey - the EOS Group company - "but during the negotiations, this company began to change the conditions in its favor, which led to the abandonment of further talks and the collapse of the negotiations, with significant time lost."
"After no agreement was reached with the Turkish bidder, talks were initiated with the second-ranked bidder - the Danish company K/S Navision Group - which accepted commercial terms, including an advance payment from which obligations towards the crew and other creditors would be settled," stated the information prepared by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, and accepted by the Government.
However, this process has since turned into a scandal, as EOS Group has firmly rejected the accusations leveled against it by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Government. They announced that they would sue the state and Crnogorska plovidba for damaging the reputation of EOS Group, namely the Government's claim that the Turks were to blame for the delay in the sale, that they reneged on their commitments and imposed conditions on the seller beyond the terms of the tender. EOS Group stated in its media response that communication with them regarding the sale of the “Crnogorska” ships was conducted by a “state secretary” at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, whom they did not name.
Silence on the Turks' claims
“The letter issued by the Secretary of State expressly confirmed that EOS Group could be fully legally protected and that the release of the vessel m/b 'Kotor' could be accelerated, provided that 40% of the agreed purchase price was paid in advance with the registration of the mortgage. However, when the process reached the stage of signing the contract, it became clear that the mortgage could not be registered in the registry for at least three weeks, due to the break in the work of the courts due to the annual holidays. Given the inability of Crnogorska plovidba AD to provide any other concrete guarantee for the purchase of the m/b 'Kotor', EOS Group consistently sought practical solutions and proposed that priority be given to the purchase of another vessel, the m/b 'Dvadeset prvi maj', which is not subject to seizure. This approach would enable the settlement of debts related to the m/b 'Kotor', the removal of the ship's encumbrances and allow for a smooth completion of the entire process,” the Turkish company announced, after their offer of 16 million dollars was rejected and the offer of Danes of 13,25 million dollars.
They pointed out that, despite their proposal to mortgage the ship “Dvadeset prvi maj” instead of “Kotor” as a guarantee that the sale of the ships would be carried out after the down payment, “Crnogorska plovidba” suddenly announced that ‘The Board of Directors has decided that the owners can no longer count on EOS Group to carry out the ship purchase process and that they will therefore immediately take steps to reduce their losses and find alternative solutions.’
"EOS Group then repeatedly called for negotiations to continue and firmly demonstrated its willingness to the owners to purchase both ships, but these proposals were completely ignored," the Turkish company claims.
The management of "Crnogorska plovidba", the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Government have not responded to their claims so far, and "Vijesti" has now received official confirmation from the Commercial Court that in the past two months of negotiations on the sale of Crnogorska's ships, no one from that company has filed any request for registration of mortgages on any of its ships. They denied that the court allegedly did not work for three weeks in August due to the annual holidays, confirming that according to the Rules of Procedure of the Court, during the collective holiday, there is always a judge on duty who could receive and promptly process any such request for registration of mortgages on a ship. Otherwise, such requests are resolved very quickly and efficiently before the Commercial Court and are most often implemented within just 24 hours of the moment of submission.
Captain's appeal to SDT
The price of $13,25 million at which the management of "Crnogorska" and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs decided to sell the company's ships is significantly lower than their objective market value. The Ministry also claimed in the information it sent to the Government that "Kotor" and "Dvadeset prvi maj" are worth at least $19 million, while brokers through whom ship sales are usually concluded estimated that they are worth at least $20 million. Therefore, the Association of Sea Captains of Montenegro from Kotor has called on the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) to investigate this transaction with the Danes for almost a third less money, emphasizing that "the information published by the Turkish buyer EOS Group, who, according to his own account, offered $16 million for both ships, and was then eliminated from the procedure with the explanation that "the mortgage could not be registered due to vacations", is particularly worrying.
"Such an explanation is frivolous, unprofessional and indicates a possible deliberate avoidance of a better offer in favor of a second-ranked buyer who paid significantly less. The above is irresistibly reminiscent of the scandal surrounding the sale of the old Barska plovidba building," UPK points out.
The SDT is already conducting an investigation into the sale of this building because the management of Barska Plovidba concluded a contract with a buyer who offered 1,7 million euros for it - almost 200 thousand euros less than the first-ranked buyer, whose offer was declared allegedly formally invalid by subsequent interventions by Barska's executive director, Boris Mihajlović.
Request for control hearing and audit of the SAI
President of the Association of Sea Captains of Montenegro, Captain Mario Pilastro yesterday, he sent a proposal to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget, Boris Mugoš, for organizing a control hearing regarding the Government's decision to sell Montenegrin ships and the general situation in the maritime economy.
"A control hearing is proposed due to serious indications of irregularities and potential illegality in the process of selling state property of great value, which have caused justified dilemmas and principled disputes in the public, and which relate to the sale of ships for the amount of 13.250.000 dollars, although their market value, according to reports from reputable brokerage houses and the information of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs itself, was at least 19-20 million, the elimination of the competing offer of the Turkish EOS Group, which allegedly amounted to 16 million dollars, with an explanation that raises doubts about the professionalism and legality of the procedure," the letter states.
A hearing is also requested due to, as alleged, potential overstepping of authority by the Government, bearing in mind that, according to Article 133 of the Law on Business Companies, the decision to dispose of high-value assets could only be made by the Shareholders' Assembly and the role of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, the Board of Directors, possibly engaged brokers and legal advisors in the sale process, as well as the actions that preceded it, which relate to the conclusion of the Business and Technical Cooperation Agreement concluded between Crnogorska and Barska plovidba.
The letter states that the aim of the control hearing is "to publicly clarify all the circumstances that led to the sale of ships below market value, to determine the legality of the actions of the competent authorities and individuals, and to enable the Parliament of Montenegro to take further institutional steps to protect state property and the interests of the maritime economy."
The captains believe that the current behavior of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the current management of the Montenegrin Navy "deserves the initiation of a parliamentary investigation, as the highest form of oversight that the Parliament can carry out."
Yesterday, they and the President of the Senate of the State Audit Institution, Vesna Mihailović, sent an initiative to "initiate the procedures for auditing financial and other documentation related to the sale of ships by Crnogorska plovidba as a company that is 100 percent state-owned."
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