Large aluminum smelter in Montenegro is declared bankrupt by a court

A large aluminum smelter that once was the pride of Montenegro has been declared bankrupt.

The Commercial Court issued its ruling Wednesday about Kombinat Aluminijuma Podgorica, or KAP, a company that has been losing money for years.

The court said KAP's property will be offered for sale free of debt in the next 20 days. The smelter's debt officially stands at euros 360 million, or about 9 percent of Montenegro's GDP, not counting legal claims pending against it.

KAP, which was created during Montenegro's communist era, had an annual production of 120,000 tons when it began work in 1971.

It was privatized in 2005, when 65.4 percent of its shares were sold to a company owned by Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska. But the government later bought back nearly 30 percent.