Correction: Daily DAN's claims are groundless

Podgorica, Montenegro (8 June 2016) – The argument put forward in an article published by daily DAN on 8 June, claiming that the Privatisation and Capital Projects Council of the Government of Montenegro based its Proposed Opinion under Article 419 of the Law on Property Relations related to the right to property registration on the land of the Zeta Film joint stock company on property evaluation of EUR 200 per m2, is untrue.

During the course of the legal procedure, the Council for Privatisation and Capital Projects did not have access to files containing estimate of the value of the underlying assets nor information on the estimated value of the underlying assets, because they were not supposed to have them as this fails under the competence of another entity.

Acting upon the request of Zeta Film company, in connection with the registration of ownership of the land, the Council for Privatisation and Capital Projects, pursuant to Article 419, Paragraph 4 of the Law on Property Relations, has adopted the Opinion on the conversion of right of use into ownership right on the basis of the proposal of the Council’s working body.

According to the facts established by the Council, the conclusion is that the evaluation has been made by the evaluators and approval has been given to the transformation of the Agency for Economy Restructuring and Foreign Investment, that final expert opinion on the calculation of shareholders' equity was provided, that underlying evaluation was used to calculate the share capital, as well as that during the privatisation process the market price was paid in line with Article 419, Paragraph 4 of the Law on Property Relations.

Accordingly, while discussing the Proposed Opinion, the Council considered it together with an explanation that did not contain the land evaluation, as published by daily Dan, nor other documents, because they were not supposed to be an integral part of the material. Based on valid reasoning, the Council established the relevant facts enabling the application of the conversion of right of use into property right relating to the payment of the market value for the land under Article 419 of the Law on Property Relations.

The author of the article was obliged, in line with the Code of Journalists of Montenegro (Article 1 and Article 3), to establish the facts before publishing them.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE