Government of Montenegro started negotiations with second-ranked consortium "Aktor HCC" on construction of highway from Bar to Serbia

Montenegrin Government has started negotiations with the second-ranked bidder on the tender for construction of the highway from Bar to Serbia - Israeli-Greek consortium "Aktor HCC".

The ministers from the Government of Montenegro, Igor Lukšić, Andrija Lompar and Branimir Gvozdenoivić, spoke to the representatives of the Greek-Israeli consortium about the possibility of construction of the highway from Bar to Serbian border by that company.

"These talks will not be official until the expiration of the two-month deadline given to Croatian consortium to provide necessary guarantees for construction of the highway", it is stated by the Government of Montenegro.

The Highway Construction Council made the decision in mid-December to extend the deadline for submission of new financial guarantees and, thus, gave the Croatian consortium led by Split-based "Konstruktor", with which Montenegro signed the contract on concession for construction of Bar-Boljare highway, another 60 days to provide necessary guarantees.

In order not to waste time, the Council also decided to start negotiations with the second-ranked bidder - Israeli-Greek consortium "Aktor HCC".

Croatian consortium submitted the financial guarantees of commercial banks Zagrebačka Banka and UniCredit Bank on December 9th, but it asked for extension of the deadline in order to be able to get support from international financial institutions that offer lower interest rates.

Prime Minister Milo Đukanović announced that the first-ranked Croatian consortium "assured" the Government that it would submit necessary banking guarantee and "stay in the business" if it got additional two months to do that.

He added that "Konstruktor", if it wanted to stay in the business, must "renew the financial guarantee for the first 50% of funds, which costs additional 0.5m EUR".

Split-based "Konstruktor", which leads the consortium of Croatian building companies, estimated the value of the highway at 2.77 billion EUR, 1.74 billion EUR of which would be provided by Montenegro.

The second-ranked company, Greek-Israeli consortium "Aktor HCC", estimated the value of construction of the highway at 3.92 billion EUR, 1.74 billion EUR of which would be provided by Montenegro.