Page 111 - SE Outlook Regions 2023

The central bank also provided data about the stock of total overdue
loan payments (including those that do not count as NPLs), which
increased 8.22% m/m and went up by 36.47% y/y to €187.43mn.

The banking sector also saw some stake sales in 2022. In November, a
stake of around 24% in the Montenegrin unit of Slovenia’s NLB Bank
was sold in a block transaction via the Montenegro Stock Exchange. In
the block transaction, the unknown buyer paid €12.33mn for 3,678,532
shares of NLB. The price per share was €3.35.

The bourse did not specify who the seller was but public broadcaster
RTCG reported that the stake is equal to that owned by local CK Zbirni
Racun.

In February, Ziraat Bank Montenegro, a unit of Turkey’s Ziraat Bank,
increased its capital by €3.1mn via a share issue. The bank issued
3,100 new shares with nominal value of €1,000 per share. Following
the new issue, Ziraat Bank Montenegro’s capital comprises 23,600
shares with nominal value of €23.6mn.

In March, Universal Capital Bank increased its capital by €1mn to
€13.1mn The capital hike was part of the bank’s debt restructuring
plans. The bank issued 1,980,532 new shares with a nominal value of
€0.5 per share. Following the increase, Universal Capital Bank's share
capital comprises 25,934,646 shares with nominal value of €0.5 each.

3.7.3 Industry

Among the main industrial companies, Montenegro’s sole aluminium
smelter and the country’s largest industrial enterprise KAP completed
its shutdown on December 30, 2021, after its owner Uniprom
repeatedly warned that rising electricity prices mean it is no longer
economically viable.

The shutdown came after Uniprom failed to reach an agreement on a
new electricity price with power company EPCG. At the end of 2021,
KAP was paying €45 per MWh plus VAT, while on international markets
the electricity price is now around €250 per MWh. However, KAP’s
contract with EPCG expired at the end of the year and as 2021 neared
its close EPCG requested a price of €183 per MWh as of January 2022
so that it would not suffer financial losses.

In April 2022, Uniprom filed a claim with the commercial court against
power company EPCG, seeking to be paid €17.4mn in financial
damages. Uniprom claims that EPCG must pay the damages for
financial losses caused to KAP’s owner between December 2021, when
the smelter was closed, and March 2022.

Uniprom claims that EPCG was responsible for the closure of the
smelter. On the other hand, EPCG has several times called on Uniprom
to meet and discuss the price for delivering electricity.

In May, Uniprom stopped paying compensation to the former workers of
the KAP aluminium smelter that it owns despite a pledge to pay them
for six months after halting operations.

111 SE Outlook 2023 www.intellinews.com