Italian A2A company appealed against the temporary measure of the Special State Prosecutor’s Office (SDT) to seize its 41.7% shareholding stake in the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG), the high court told Pobjeda.
“Such a measure, which was issued in relation to the already known proceedings pertaining to the intercompany services provided by A2A to the same EPCG between 2010 and 2012 mentions that A2A itself would be now subject to investigation,” the company says on its website.
High court has blocked A2A’s shares in EPCG due to the legal procedure conducted against several former managers of the company. They have been suspected of abuse of office, which cost EPCG several million euros.
Montenegrin government earlier stated that this would not jeopardise the takeover procedure launched in early July. A2A offered the government to take over its 41.7% stake in EPCG for €250m and to pay it in seven annual instalments, as defined by the put option.
In April 2016, SDT issued an order to conduct an investigation against six people on suspicion of abusing their office, thus costing EPCG millions of euros and providing gain to Italian companies A2A, A2A Reti Elettriche and BAIN-Milano.
In addition to former EPCG’s financial directors Flavio Bianco and Massimo Sala and former company’s CEO Enrico Malerba, the inquiry includes CFO Slobodan Tanasijevic, the head of EPCG’s directorate for accounting and taxes Vojka Calasan and the head of EPCG’s directorate for finance and payment Venka Janjusevic.
The investigation was initiated on the basis of documents the Parliamentary Committee on Economy submitted to SDT in October 2014, after a control hearing on EPCG’s consulting contracts.
According to these documents, the consulting contracts that EPCG signed with A2A, A2A Reti Elettriche and BAIN-Milano were concluded without conducting public procurement procedures and the mandatory decisions of the Board of Directorso
