Radar: Low budget revenue from Belgrade Waterfront

The Belgrade Waterfront company is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi-based Eagle Hills company and the Serbian government with the private company owning 67 percent of shares and the government 33 percent.

Radar recalled that the government handed over 177 hectares of prime construction land along the banks of the Sava river in central Belgrade to the private company nine years ago and is now being handed another 327 hectares to expand the Belgrade Waterfront. The decision to hand over more land was taken by the current outgoing government. Government documents do not specify the conditions under which Eagle Hills will get the new land.

The initiative to expand was launched by Belgrade Waterfront and the government decision on the land was drafted by the Spatial Planning and Urbanism Agency based on the initiative. The draft decision was sent to the relevant ministries.

Radar said that the state can’t be expected to get back everything it invested. The sale of the total of 504 hectares of land would have brought in 2.5 billion Euro which is more than 40 times what Eagle Hills invested.

State revenue from the sale of Belgrade Waterfront apartments netted just 2.3 million Euro which is 300,000 Euro less than the most expensive apartment sold for. The state also collected 8.2 million Euro in profit tax and that is it.

The salaries for the Belgrade Waterfront staff of some 100 people totaled in excess of 10 million Euro, the weekly said and added that the average net monthly salary in the company was about 3,300 Euro.

Foreign investments consultant Milan Kovacevic told Radar that the government should get a third of the profits from the sale of apartments but that did not happen even though profits in 2023 stood at 124.5 million Euro. “The money obviously went from Serbia to the Emirates. It’s clear that there is a route to move the money out without it being seen with part of it ending up with the people who will allow anything. The profits would be much higher if the money didn’t go to them and the state could collect much more in profit taxes,” he said.

Belgrade Waterfront was more generous to its subordinate companies BW Galerija and BW Kula, lending them 86 million Euro and paying the majority owner 25 million Euro on an earlier loan with the same amount due by the end of the year. The majority owner also charged some 7.5 million Euro for its services to develop the project, Radar said.