Privatization Agency: Council presents false data on Beopetrol sale

(Photo: Goran Parezanović)

A report of the Serbian goverment's Anti-Corruption Council on the privatization of Beopetrol contains numerous false data and arbitrary and wrong interpretations, the Privatization Agency announced in a release on Tuesday.

It is pointed out that the Council has presented inaccurate claims that on the basis of two contracts, Beopetrol granted a loan to the buyer and the new owner of that company, Russia's Lukoil, to fulfill its contractual obligations.

As the Agency explained, the truth is that Lukoil approved a loan to Beopetrol that then drew the borrowed money on the basis of a contract, which was in compliance with the privatization agreement.

The Anti-Corruption Council has published a report on the Beopetrol privatization reading that this sale caused a EUR 100 million damage to the state of Serbia.

Lukoil bought Beopetrol in 2003 for EUR 117 million and promised to invest EUR 85 million in that company over the next five years.

The Council's report reads that Lukoil did not have money for promised investments, so it took out one loan of EUR 105 million and another loan of EUR 10.2 million from Beopetrol.