The Supervisory Board of the Yugoslav River Shipping (JRB) has called an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting for February 14, with only one item on the agenda: voting on the decision to establish the governing bodies.
JRB was privatized in November for 10.9 million euros, when the Ministry of Economy signed a conditional sale agreement with a consortium consisting of Karin Komerc from Novi Sad, Sani Eco Vita from Lazarevac, Raccacop from Belgrade, and NS Square Gradnja from Novi Sad. Since then, this consortium has acquired 99.98% of JRB’s capital, but it is notable that all of the shares they acquired have been pledged, with a value of one dinar listed in the Central Securities Registry.
According to the invitation, the agenda for the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting can be expanded, but only upon the proposal of a shareholder holding at least 5% of the shares.
The only shareholder meeting this criterion is the consortium of new owners, holding 99.98% of the shares, with Sani Eco Vita, represented by Ana Nikić Vujanac, acting as the representative. Nikić Vujanac’s signature, along with the signature of the Minister of Economy, Adriana Mesarović, is on the privatization contract for JRB. Sani Eco Vita is a company registered for cleaning services, disinfection, pest control, and rat control. According to data from the rating agency CompanyWall, Sani Eco Vita had a total revenue of nearly 31 million euros last year.
Karin Komerc, on the other hand, is the company that enabled the consortium to meet the requirement to participate in JRB’s privatization.
This Novi Sad-based company deals with civil engineering, construction, production and sale of building materials, and river transport. River transport is also the main activity of JRB, known for its cooperation with the Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) in coal transportation.
Karin Komerc, co-owned by Jovan and Krste Dubroja (each holding 50%), achieved total revenues of nearly 143 million euros in 2023, with an EBITDA of 13.25 million euros. Additionally, the consortium committed to investing a total of 2 million euros in JRB within two years after the approval from the Competition Protection Commission, while also being prohibited from disposing of JRB’s assets or shares during that period.
The agreement also stipulated maintaining the continuity of JRB’s business, with a clause stating that “business revenue cannot decrease by more than 40% in the two years after the conditional approval, compared to the average revenue of the previous four years.” During this time, the number of employees, which was 203 by the end of 2023, cannot be reduced, and salaries must be paid regularly, with the Ministry of Economy overseeing this every four months.
As for the current events in JRB, the invitation to the extraordinary meeting indicates that shareholders hold a total of 1,804,484 shares, of which 1,804,179 are owned by the JRB consortium, with the remaining shares held by 15 minor shareholders. All decisions, as stated in the invitation, can be made by a simple majority of the shareholders present, except for decisions regarding the dismissal of Supervisory Board members, which require a three-fourths majority.
The shareholders’ day is scheduled for February 4.
