Montenegro’s government has decided to speed up the acquisition of Italian A2A's stake in the power firm EPCG, paying €68.9mn for a stake of around 13% this year instead of the initially planned €35.7mn for less than 7% of the company.

In May this year, the stake of Montenegro’s government will increase to 70.16% from the current 57.01%, the government said in a statement. The government has already revised up its plan for borrowing this year in order to start paying for A2A’s stake in the power company.

The Italian company sent a put option notice to Montenegro’s government, exercising the right to sell its 41.7% stake in EPCG for €250mn, in July 2017. At the end of September, A2A’s three-month deadline to find a buyer for its stake ended, clearing the way for Podgorica to buy it back for €250mn under the put option agreed between the two parties.

“In this way, except gaining a two-third ownership and the respective share right, the state will return its ownership in EPCG at the level before the partial privatisation and capital increase in 2009,” the statement said.

It added that the acquisition of a bigger than planned stake this year will not oblige the government to speed up the purchase of the remaining shares and it can return to the initial plan for paying A2A its stake within seven years.

The Italian company was expected to exit EPCG mainly due to its lack of enthusiasm for the project to extend the capacity of the TE Pljevlja power plant, which has only one unit of 210MW. The planned project has been criticised for its lack of economic viability, and the government is searching for a new investor after the Czech Export Bank pulled out.