Kosovo claims property in Montenegro taken from Serbia. (105 characters)

The Kosovo Privatization Agency (KAP) asks the Montenegrin Ministry of Finance to stop the change of ownership of the property of the former public company PIK Kosovo export Industrija mesa-Kosovo Polje, Radio Free Europe (RFE) confirmed. The properties are located in Podgorica, Baru and Budva.

According to the law, KAP manages all former public enterprises in Kosovo and Ukraine, claim they are the sole owners of the property. They claim that after 1999 the property was misappropriated by the Klanica company from Kraljevo, which then sold it. They have twice applied to the State Property and Cadastre Office of Montenegro to cancel the sale contract concluded by Klanica in Serbia. It refused to do so and the case went to the Ministry of Finance of Montenegro, which is the supervisory authority over the Directorate.

"We appealed the decision of the Podgorica Cadastre Directorate of January 24, 2023 on the change of ownership of PIK Kosovo real estate in Montenegro to the second competent instance, the Ministry of Finance," reads the communication received by RSE from the Kosovo Privatization Agency.

The Cadastre and State Property Administration under the leadership of Koçi Djurisic did not respond to the RSE's request for the Kosovo Agency's request, despite several written promises, for two weeks. No responses were received from the Ministry of Finance.

The assets of PIK Kosovo

These are almost 1,000 square meters of commercial premises in prestigious locations. In the center of Podgorica there are seven premises with a total area of 700 square meters, of which 500 square meters are on the first floor of residential buildings, and 200 square meters are in the basements. There is a 60 square meter room in Budva and a 137 square meter room in Bar with a 47 square meter basement.

What has happened to real estate since 1999?

In Montenegro, since November 1999, the real estate has been managed by the Klanica company from Kraljevo through a company with the same name in Montenegro, established in the same month and centered in Podgorica. Three years later, in August 2002, another company "Klanica Kraljevo" was established as part of a foreign company centered in Bar, in the village of Sutomore.

When the parent company of Klanica Kraljevo in Serbia entered bankruptcy in mid-2019, real estate in Montenegro was sold through bankruptcy.

The estimated value of the property was about 620 thousand euros, and it was sold for a little less than 240 thousand euros to Bosnian citizen Angeli Sekulovic from Sutomore. Although Sekulovic's offer was only 38 percent of the asking price, the sale was approved by the Creditors' Committee.

A dispute in Montenegro's cadastre?

The Kosovo Privatization Agency says for RSE that a court case is ongoing in the Kraљevo Court regarding the misappropriation of the property of the 1999 Kosovo enterprise by the company Klanica Kraljevo. They plan to bring the case before the Montenegrin courts as well. This will be possible only after receiving a response from the Ministry of Finance, which they have applied for because of the change in real estate ownership, which, according to them, was approved (recorded) by the Podgorica Cadastre Directorate at the beginning of the year.

The Podgorica Cadastre Directorate claims that "PIK Kosovo is not registered as the owner of real estate in Podgorica. The RSE, while checking the Montenegrin real estate cadastre, found that all properties are still owned by the Klanica company from Kraljevo, and the owner for the premises in Budva is Željko Perović. "

RSE was unable to contact Anđela Sekulović, who, according to the documents of the Serbian Agency for Licensing of Bankruptcy Trustees, bought the real estate of the company "Klanica Kraljevo" in Montenegro. Sekulovic is listed in the Register of Enterprises of Montenegro as the director of Klanica Kraljevo, centered in Sutomore, which is part of the company of the same name in Kraljevo, which is also in her ownership.

According to the data of the Kosovo Privatization Agency provided earlier to RSE, Kosovo has more than 30 properties where the owner has been illegally changed. According to the same source, Kosovo owns 163 real estate properties, i.e. public enterprises in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.