Vučić Buys Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske

“Elektroprivreda Srbije” will not be privatized, but will try to buy electricity companies in Republika Srpska and Montenegro or merge with them, announced Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, reports the Patria News Agency.

– I want to announce that we have different plans for EPS. We do not want to sell it and we do not want to privatize it. We want to expand our influence, to talk with Republika Srpska and Montenegro. We will try to participate in the purchase or creation of joint ventures with RS and Montenegro – said Vučić for the Belgrade weekly Nedeljnik.

How profitable this move would be and how the deal could be realized is being analyzed by the Ministry of Energy, confirmed Minister Aleksandar Antić for Kurir.

– The Ministry and EPS are seriously analyzing how to make this activity feasible because these are valuable companies. The analysis will be completed in a few months. The value of this deal is reflected in the fact that EPS would become a serious player in the region, production would be better balanced in different periods of the year.

Now, first, we need to carry out a reorganization in cooperation with the IMF to achieve savings and so that EPS can rely on its own revenues and some credit lines to realize this deal – says Antić, adding that Prime Minister Vučić would not mention this if "some possibilities for cooperation did not exist".

Statistics

The total debt of "Elektroprivreda Srbije" amounts to one billion euros

The last loan taken from the EBRD amounts to 200 million euros

Last year, they took 200 million euros from commercial banks

EPS spent seven million euros on consulting services

They pay two million euros to Hungarian managers for running EPS