BK group claims that the Russians did not give up procurement of Mobtel 063!

Alfa group signed the contract on procurement of company BK trade from Moscow. The contract, however, was not realized due to checks whether the State can forbid that transaction, claims press agency of BK group.
This agency points out that Alfa group and all other interested companies from Austria, Norway and Great Britain were surprised hearing some members of the Government saying that BK trade, which owns 51% of Mobtel, cannot be sold because of the right to more important purchase. The court of arbitration from Zurich confirmed that that was not true when it rejected such a request by the Postal Company.

According to information that are available to them, the contract with Alfa group implies 90-day deadline for realization, which is in accordance with international standards.

However, the Postal Company denies that it sent any request for prevention of business with Alfa group. As Željko Ivanji, director of the Directorate for Development, Strategy and Marketing of the Postal Company, explains, such a possibility has never been taken into consideration because the right to more important purchase refers only to Mobtel. Ivanji says that Mobtel is persistent in not answering to their requests for showing of documents on sale that was realized at the beginning of March 2005. As far as they know, there is video recording from that period taped during the appearance of Bogoljub Karić on the Television Politika. On that occasion he announced that the contract would become valid in three weeks, as soon as Russian anti-monopoly commission gave its agreement. We suppose that that should have been pure formality since Mobtel operates in Serbia, not in Russia, says Ivanji.

Mobtel owes €52m (4.2 billion CSD) to the Postal Company for unpaid dividends. Of that amount, over 3 billion CSD is indisputable. General director Patrik Harpur asked them to pay the debts in three installments, but we simly haven't spoke anymore from then, says Željko Ivanji.