Old dockers in new attire - Container Terminal and General Cargo in expectation of Port Bar's privatization

(Port Bar)

Besides being the April Fools' Day, the 1st of April will also be the D-Day for stock company Container Terminal and General Cargo in Bar. It will be found out on that day if and who will buy the company. Until then, while the potential investor is collecting the funds for the process of revitalization and new projects, people in that company do not just "sit and wait".

Company Container Terminal and General Cargo in Bar was formed on October 1, 2009, after being separated from Port Bar as an independent stock company majority owned by the state of Montenegro, which has 54.05% of the company's stocks in its possession. Soon the tender for its privatization was announced and, although the initial plan was that the tender be opened prior to February 1st, the bids will be accepted prior to March 31st due to big interest.

Old docker in new attire

The company participated in the recently held Brand Fair in Belgrade (February 11-13, 2010) as a developing brand, under slogan "Old Acquaintance - Docker in New Attire".

- In that way we wanted to show that Serbia has always been our mainstay - Milan Čelebić, the Commercial Director of stock company Container Terminal and General Cargo, told eKapija.

As he explains, they are returning to the market that they have not conquered enough because of various social-political events.

Upon the company's separation from Port Bar, many companies from Serbia remained its partners, and U.S. Steel, Copper Mill Sevojno, Star Agent, As Agent and Pan šped are only some of them.

(Milan Čelebić)

Crucial year

- This year is very significant to us because we are going to find out if the company will be privatized or not, which will, of course affect our future strategy. Our work and relationship with partners remained unchanged by that process and we are trying to maintain the contact with the market and keep the pace in transportation industry. We have lost much over the past few decades and we must now work hard to catch up with the others – Čelebić said for our portal.

As he explains, the prognoses for this year are such that the transportation industry expects to register growth, which, as he hopes, will have a positive effect on Container Terminal and General Cargo.

Government of Serbia, BB Cargo and privatization

The privatization process anticipates that the potential future owner of 54.05% of stocks resolves the issue of social program and provide the funds for investments within next 2 to 5 years.

According to Čelebić, about 120m EUR will be required for that. He says that the estimated price of the company's stocks is at the expected level, but that he is even more satisfied with the references presented to potential buyers as necessary.

The privatization process of Container Terminal and General Cargo runs parallel to the privatization process of Montecargo, the operator for transportation of goods by rail, which is also a part of Port Bar.

Theses processes are deliberately run simultaneously "in order to offer investors an encouraging framework for strengthening the logistics chain and, thus, improve the conditions for multimodal distribution center in Bar" - said the Montenegrin officials.

The Government of Serbia made the decision at the end of 2009 on formation of railway transportation company BB Cargo in Belgrade. Total subscribed and paid-in capital of the company amounts to 62,000 EUR and, by the decision of the company's assembly, that amount can be increased or decreased, so that the decision was made that the company, in order to increase its basic capital, should buy the stocks of Container Terminal and General Cargo in Bar and/or Montecargo in Podgorica based on tender announced by the Government of Montenegro.

According to some earlier announcements in the media, the Government of Serbia set aside about 500m RSD to participate, as the minority owner in the consortium with Serbian companies, in the tender for privatization of a part of Port Bar in Montenegro.

The consortium backed by the Government of Serbia is led by MK Commerce, the company owned by businessman Miodrag Kostić from Novi Sad.

The Minister of Infrastructure of Serbia, Milutin Mrkonjić, has recently said that Serbia will definitely "win on the tender" and added that, when it comes to the acquisition of the port in Bar, the economic effect is the most significant. While impatiently waiting for the 1st of April, people in Bar-based company Container Terminal and General Cargo also say:

- We believe that we will manage to bridge the period until privatization without some big financial difficulties. That is our most important task at the moment.