The value of the assets of the Airport of Montenegro is estimated at almost 265 million euros, and this amount is largely higher than the last estimate due to the larger area of land planned for the expansion of the airport in Tivat.
This was unofficially confirmed to "Vijesti" by sources from the executive branch who are familiar with this process.
"The new assessment includes land that the state expropriated in the previous period," a source explained to "Vijesti".
The last assessment of the state-owned enterprise's fixed assets was carried out in 2021 and amounted to 122 million euros.
The Ministry of Transport requested a new assessment of ACG's assets from the State Property Administration in order to determine whether the final decision on whether and to whom the Tivat and Podgorica airports will be assigned for management will be made by the Parliament of Montenegro or the Government.
According to the Law on State Property, property over 150 million is decided by the legislative branch, which means that the Government should send the documentation to the legislative branch for further action. "Vijesti" is awaiting a response from the Ministry of Transport today on when the documentation regarding the concession of the airport will be sent to the Government for further action.
The government has so far spent the entire budget of 11 million euros it allocated last year for the expropriation of private property in the contact zone of Tivat Airport, which is designated by spatial planning documentation for the expansion of the airport, without fully completing the process. Two million euros are still needed to complete this work.
In accordance with the Government's conclusion of 30 December 2024, the Ministry of Finance has paid 11 million euros from the current budget reserve into the expropriation account of the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property. After that, the Ministry of Transport has sent a proposal to the Real Estate Administration in Tivat for the expropriation of real estate within the scope of the second phase of the airport. This concerns 143 plots, the total area of which is over 50 hectares.
The tender commission for granting Montenegrin airports under concession completed its work last year and sent the documentation to the Ministry of Transport, which, in accordance with Article 31, paragraph 1 of the Law on Concessions, published the ranking list of bidders.
According to the ranking, the South Korean company "Incheon International Airport Corporation" (IIAC) ranked first with 96,18 points, while the Luxembourg-American company "Corporación América Airports" (CAAP) ranked second with 65,15. The tender was announced in 2019.
The second-ranked company CAAP filed an appeal against this ranking with the State Concessions Commission, but it was rejected as unfounded.
"The property valuation cannot affect the cancellation of the concession tender, bearing in mind that the tender is being conducted in accordance with the Law on Concessions, according to which the Tender Commission conducted the bid evaluation procedure and determined the ranking list of bidders. After the procedure conducted by the Tender Commission, the Ministry of Transport is obliged to forward the complete documentation to the Government of Montenegro for decision-making, in accordance with Article 33 of the Law on Concessions," the Ministry of Transport recently told "Vijesti".
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The book value of total assets of ACG as of December 31, 2025 is 185 million euros.
The parliamentary procedure for amending the Law on Financing Local Self-Government stipulates that the entire amount of concession fees for renting airports belongs to the state budget, and then 75 percent of that revenue is allocated from the budget to finance capital and development projects in the municipality where the airports are located. In its opinion on this act, the Ministry of Finance proposed that the method of selecting those development projects that would be financed in this way be defined more precisely.
The current law stipulates that 70 percent of airport concession revenues go directly to municipalities.
This legal solution was updated prior to the decision to lease the airports in Tivat and Zeta for a long-term period with an initial fixed concession of at least 100 million and an increase in variable annual concessions.
Presidents of the municipalities of Tivat and Zeta Željko Komnenović i Mihailo Asanović have already declared their support for the current proposal. Last year, the government proposed that the municipalities of Tivat and Zeta receive 30 percent of the airport concession, and the state take 70 percent, which was opposed by these municipalities, as well as part of the parliamentary majority.
"The current legal solution does not provide for a sufficiently precise and development-oriented distribution of revenues from the concession fee for the use of airports. Although airports, as goods of general interest, are located on the territory of specific local self-government units, the existing system does not provide for the obligation to direct part of the revenues from the concession fee in a clear and targeted manner towards the development of local infrastructure and projects of strategic importance for the municipality in whose territory the airport is located. This misses the opportunity to more directly link the revenue generated by the use of local resources to local development," the Ministry of Finance stated in its opinion on the draft law.
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