A strange article in the concession contract of Vlora Airport gives the National Commercial Bank the power to change the owner of the concession. More specifically, article 19.4 of the concession contract for the construction of Vlora Airport between the Albanian government and the consortium consisting of Mabco, 2A Group and Yda expressly states:
"The Parties acknowledge that, in the event of a default by the Concessionaire under this Contract, or under the Financing Agreement, and the continuation of the default until the expiry of the period for correction, the Financial Institutions or the Representatives of the Financial Institutions, as the case may be, shall have the right to nominate a Substitute Company to the Contracting Authority, which shall replace the Concessionaire."
Article that gives BKT the right to propose a change of concession owner
Further, Articles 19.5 and 19.6 clarify the conditions that the replacement owner proposed by the bank must meet, as well as the procedures for how the replacement is made.
Conditions for replacing the owner
Through these articles, BKT has the power to propose a change of owners of the Vlora Airport concession, if the latter do not repay the loan regularly. Of course, this proposal must then be approved by the government, or more precisely the Ministry of Infrastructure in its capacity as the Contracting Authority.
Kapitali consulted a series of concession contracts signed by the Albanian government. None of them contain such an article, which gives the bank the right to change the owner of the concession. In a normal situation, this article would have no importance. But in the new circumstances created by the fierce conflict between the shareholders, this provision in the concession contract could turn into a fatal instrument for each of the shareholders.
The blocking dispute between the two partners, Behgjet Pacolli and Valon Ademi, may lead the concessionaire company Vlora International Airport to be unable to repay the 56 million euro loan taken from BKT, although according to information available to Kapitali, at least until last month, the loan repayment has been correct.
But a potential deadlock situation, which in the new conditions of the conflict is very likely, would pave the way for BKT to use the article to change the concession owners.
In a situation where the government, one of the partners and BKT would be in line, the other partner could be excluded from the concession. Could this be the reason why Behgjet Pacolli felt threatened and went to get another loan of 100 million euros from a company in Luxembourg? This remains a mere guess.
But what is true and proven are the articles that give BKT the power to propose the replacement of the concession owners by making this bank the government's bailiff. This is another major scandal in the Vlora Airport corruption scandal.
Editorial
