In July 2017, the state could have sold each of its approximately 3.75 million shares in Energoprojekt to the majority owner, Dobroslav Bojović’s Napred Razvoj and its affiliated companies, at a price of 1,501 dinars, boosting the budget by 5.63 billion dinars, or €46.6 million. It could have, but it did not. Instead, nine years later, it sold them to the very same buyer for less than 1.7 billion dinars, or €14.4 million.
For the new boss, this was undoubtedly an excellent deal. Not only did he save €32 million, but – with the wholehearted support of the authorities, who depleted the state coffers by that exact amount – he also increased his stake in Energoprojekt beyond the 90 per cent “threshold”. This now allows him to initiate a compulsory squeeze-out of all remaining shares at a price of 452.2 dinars – even from those shareholders who refused to sell them when the price was three times higher.
None of this would have been possible had the Government of Serbia not facilitated it. “Without the vote of Dragan Ugrčić (assistant to the Minister of Economy, Adrijana Mesarović), the state representative on the Supervisory Board, the management of Energoprojekt would not have even been able to adopt a positive opinion on Napred Razvoj’s offer. His vote was decisive,” says Zoran Đerković, owner of Tezoro Broker.
In whose interest did the deputy minister of economy vote at the shareholders’ assembly?
The majority owners, whose offer was under consideration, did not have voting rights at the Shareholders’ Assembly, meaning that Serbia’s representative practically held a three-quarters majority when voting. Consequently, the state could have made any decision it wished, explains Radar’s interlocutor.
To make matters stranger, at the Assembly held on 22 June, just days before the state sold its package to companies affiliated with Bojović, the agenda included a decision on the distribution of Energoprojekt’s undistributed profits of 3.7 billion dinars, or €31.6 million.
“Had the state representative voted for those profits to be paid out to shareholders, nearly €11 million would have flowed into the budget. Instead, contrary to all common sense, he voted for the entire profit to remain undistributed. The state then handed over its entire stake to Bojović for a mere €14 million, leaving him €31.6 million in the form of undistributed profits alone. And that is without even counting domestic and foreign assets – considering that just the land in New Belgrade, opposite the Palace of Serbia, which Bojović spent years trying to seize from Energoprojekt, is worth hundreds of millions of euros,” Đerković stresses.
Bojović did not respond to messages asking for his perspective on what most minority shareholders view as a hostile takeover. By the time this issue went to print, we had also received no response from the Ministry of Economy or the Ministry of Finance, headed by Adrijana Mesarović and Siniša Mali, respectively.
We sent them questions asking why the Government has sold its stake now, given that it rejected a nominally three-and-a-half times higher price in 2017; whether anyone will be held accountable for the state losing more than €30 million; and why the state representatives at the Shareholders’ Assembly did not request a dividend payout before selling the shares, choosing instead to vote for the entire 3.7 billion dinars of profit to remain undistributed – leaving it to be managed at the sole discretion of Napred Razvoj and its affiliates.
In addition, we expected an answer from Minister Mali on whether the decision to sell the shares at a price several times lower than both their book value and the offer made nine years ago aligns with the responsible management of public finances and the protection of state interests.
Who played the role of the “pass-through entity” in robbing minority shareholders?
In any case, the state has ended up short-changed in this deal, and the additional problem is that the total damage to the public interest will be incomparably higher than €32 million. In this operation, as Đerković claims, the state had several “accomplices”. He has warned the Securities Commission, President Vučić, Prime Minister Vučević, the ministers of finance and economy, and the president of the Share Fund’s council about this.
“We explained in great detail that artificial liquidity was created through stock market manipulation. Shares were bought from Mediolanum Invest by Ljubiša Jevrić and the Moma Group – a company registered for restaurant and mobile catering services with only one employee, which in 2024 and 2025 had total revenues of 23 million dinars alongside a net loss exceeding 181 million. Yet, out of nowhere, it bought 0.43 per cent of Energoprojekt shares on the stock exchange for 20 million dinars, only to sell them to Bojović two months later, helping him cross the 90 per cent threshold,” he explains, pointing out that it is blindingly obvious that the Moma Group “served as a pass-through entity to pull off the robbery of minority shareholders.”
Everything we have been warning all relevant authorities about for nine years has come true down to the very last detail, stresses Marko Martinoli, speaking on his own behalf and on behalf of the defrauded shareholders of Belgrade-based Aktivist and British-based Aktivist Management.
“The key to forcing a squeeze-out of the remaining minority shareholders was handed to Napred Razvoj and its affiliates by the state, which deposited its entire package – a third of the company – at a price far below book value and three times lower than what the same group offered in 2017, when the Government rejected it. For a package that was worth €46 million back then, they have now collected just over €14 million for the budget. Excessive damage, measurable in tens of millions of euros, has been inflicted on the state, and this is material that the competent prosecution service ought to be interested in,” Martinoli is categorical.
A final chance to rectify “monstrous” judicial practice
Furthermore, he says, court-appointed forensic experts determined that the value of shares in Energoprojekt’s subsidiaries is several times higher than anything the bidder ever paid for them. For years, the Supreme Court has stifled these findings with the stance that a fair price cannot be contested in court. Martinoli recalls that last autumn, both the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights declared this stance inadmissible.
He points out that the review in the Energoprojekt Entel case is the Supreme Court’s final chance to correct “the monstrous practice it established with its previous decisions” – a ruling that has been awaited since February 2025. In addition, he notes that four related constitutional appeals are pending before the Constitutional Court, one for over three years.
“As a whistleblower, I submitted an email to the court indicating that the bidder knew the outcome of one of the earlier reviews 105 days before the verdict was delivered. Institutions and courts exist to be the final barrier against disenfranchisement and the deprivation of property, but in the case of Energoprojekt, they have fallen one by one.
The Securities Commission established that the controlling stake was acquired in violation of the takeover law, yet instead of punishing the violators, it approved their offer and legalised the lawlessness. The courts overturned legally binding rulings to buy out shares at a fair price – which was several times higher than the offer approved by the Commission and was determined by an appraiser hired and paid by the bidder themselves, a severe conflict of interest. The Government sold the shares for a third of the price it rejected in 2017. And the State Attorney’s Office did nothing to prevent or compensate for the excessive damage to both the state and other shareholders,” Martinoli specifies.
The next step for Napred Razvoj is the compulsory squeeze-out of the remaining shares, but some of the minority shareholders say they will not sit idly by and are promising a fight for justice.
“It will be a process requiring plenty of patience: navigating domestic courts that judge in bad faith, and eventually reaching an international court, where these very straightforward issues have already been resolved. Ultimately, the invoice for Dobroslav Bojović’s private debt will be sent to the state of Serbia. It seems that is the standard at the moment,” Martinoli concludes.
In other words, the fact that the state has lost tens of millions of euros by selling its shares in Energoprojekt does not mean the damage will stop there. The injured parties will not seek compensation before international courts from Bojović and his affiliates, but from the state itself. And the state, as always, will pass the eventual bill on to its citizens. So, judge for yourselves who came off worse in this story, and who gets to celebrate their success with the most expensive champagne.
(Radar, 14.07.2026)
https://radar.nova.rs/ekonomija/prodaja-energoprojekat-ostetila-drzavu/