Property of NIS still not transferred to Russians - Serbian side to appoint good lawyer as new member of Administrative Board

The Administrative Board of the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) should appoint new members to the Supervisory Board at the meeting in Sankt Peterbourg on Friday, as well as get familiar with the details of work of new auditor for NIS - "Ernst&Young", which should confirm if that company registered profit of about 2.3 billion RSD in 2008, as Serbian side claims, or the losses of about 8 billion RSD, which is the information that was confirmed by previous auditor - KPMG.

As "Politika" learned from unofficial sources, the report on NIS' performance in 2008 should be finished by the new auditor prior to the end of this month at the latest, so it could be adopted before November 30th, if the Administrative Board of NIS and the Stockholding Assembly agree with that.

The report made by new auditor may show that the last year's losses of NIS were somewhat lower than 90m EUR, but that does not mean that the difference in two reports will be drastically large.

Difference in final audit reports may appear because the new auditor was asked to do the inventory of complete property of NIS, stock, and income statements, because the report on final balance can not be accepted without that.

While it is insisted on inventory of the property of NIS, it is interesting that it has not been transferred from the Republic Directorate for Property to the new owner even after nearly eight months from the signing of the sales contract with "Gazpromneft”.

The Supervisory Board should comprise two members of Serbian side and one member of Russian side. One of the candidates may be Ljubica Simić, who had been the Investment Director in "Petroleum Industry of Serbia" before the privatization.