A pledge serves as a guarantee that we will repay the debt on time – otherwise, the creditor can satisfy themselves by selling the pledged property.
As of December 31, 2023, the Agency for Business Registers, as reported on the N1 portal, indicates that there were actively 196,209 pledged rights, with the total value of secured claims amounting to 100,898,034,811.79 euros.
Debts exceeding 100 billion euros are owed by individuals and companies in Serbia, who have put vehicles, trucks, machinery, locomotives, drones, various valuables, and even animals, contracts yet to be collected, and sometimes entire companies under pledge. The majority of pledges are registered in favor of banks, according to the APR registry.
Typically, items such as vehicles, machinery, art pieces, jewelry are pledged. However, there are also instances of animals being put under pledge, such as those purchased on credit by agricultural households.
In 2023, rights (claims, shares, and other property rights) constituted 32.65% of registered items. Vehicles represented 30.79%, machinery and equipment 19.89%, and animals accounted for 6.74%.
The majority of pledges in 2023 were in favor of banks, making up 77.15% of all registered pledges. Other commercial entities represented 11.1%, the Republic of Serbia Tax Administration 4.06%, individuals 2.29%, entrepreneurs 0.05%, while entities not falling into any of the mentioned categories were represented in 5.35% of cases, according to the APR.
By searching the Registry of Pledge Rights, one can find pledges on various items. For example, there is a pledge on a gold necklace in favor of the Public Utility Company “Čistoća” from Sombor. The debtor is a jewelry store, and the pledge was established in 2010 by the decision of the Commercial Court in Sombor.
In contrast, there are cases where entire companies are pledged. Recently, Telekom Serbia sold antenna towers and associated infrastructure managed by the company Sky Towers Infrastructure (owned by Telekom).
At the end of December 2023, the new owner of that company became Actis Luna Telecom Tower, a company registered in Serbia. After taking over, the new company immediately pledged 100% ownership of Sky Towers Infrastructure to Telekom, securing a claim of 420.4 million euros.
When a debtor fails to pay the creditor on time, the creditor can satisfy themselves through the sale of the pledged items. According to the Agency for Business Registers, a relatively small number of registered recovery entries suggests that debtors generally meet their obligations, and forced executions secured by registered pledges are relatively rare in practice, ranging between 0.5% and 1% in terms of the percentage of registered pledge rights. Over the last five years, there have been 300 recorded recoveries, with the total value of secured claims in those cases reaching around 108 million euros.
