Valuation of ACG fixed assets by the end of the month

The State Property Administration is finalizing a report on the valuation of the fixed assets of the Airports of Montenegro (MG), which is necessary 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.

“The report is in its final phase and we expect it to be completed and sent to the Ministry of Transport for further procedure by the end of this month,” the State Property Administration, which it manages, told “Vijesitma”. Koča Đurišić.

The Ministry of Transport requested this assessment in order to precisely determine whether the value of the state-owned company’s fixed assets exceeds the legal threshold of 150 million euros, which will determine whether the decision on the concession is made by the Government or the Parliament.

According to the Law on State Property, property above 150 million is decided by the legislative branch.

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 with the state Concessions Commission, but it was rejected as unfounded.

The last assessment of the state-owned enterprise’s fixed assets was carried out in 2021 and amounted to 122 million euros.

“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”.

The book value of total assets of ACG as of December 31, 2025 is 185 million euros.

Of this, the book value of fixed assets (land, buildings, equipment, etc.) amounts to 123 million euros, while current assets (receivables, inventories and cash) amount to 62 million euros.

In the period from 2019 (when the concession tender process was launched) until 2025, a total of over 12 million euros was invested.

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.

( Marija Mirjačić )