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This summary is provided by the STA:
Govt's, PM party's ratings on the rise again
LJUBLJANA - The government's approval rating has improved compared to the previous month, shows the latest poll commissioned by the commercial broadcaster POP TV. Dropping to 52.4% in March, it rose to 56% this month, while the support for the senior coalition Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) grew as well, with some 17% of the respondents in favour of the party. Some 29% said they disapproved of the government's performance, down around 7 percentage points over the previous month, while almost 15% were undecided, shows the poll conducted by Mediana and published on Sunday.
NLB to issued EUR 45m in subordinate bonds
LJUBLJANA - NLB will issue EUR 45m in subordinated notes on 6 May with a ten-year maturity, the company said in a press release. The bonds will have a fixed coupon interest rate of 4.2% in the first five years. After that the fixed coupon interest rate is to be determined based on the sum of the then applicable reference interest rate and the fixed margin as defined at the issuance date of the notes. The issue will consist of 450 notes at EUR 99.10 apiece and will be considerably smaller than initially planned. In the prospectus, issued on 12 April, the bank said it would issue a total of EUR 75m worth of tier 2 notes.
AIK Banka squeezes out small shareholders of Gorenjska Banka
KRANJ - The annual general meeting of Gorenjska Banka, which is in 98.27% ownership of Serbian AIK Banka, squeezed out small shareholders. It will pay EUR 298 a share to owners of a total of 6,166 shares. The compensation per share will be the same as the price per share offered by AIK Banka in the recent takeover. This was criticised by Kristjan Verbič, the president of the VZMD association of small shareholders. He said in a press release that the compensation amount had not been based on an appraisal report which is mandatory by law.
Competition watchdog okays Elan sale
LJUBLJANA - The Competition Protection Agency's (AVK) approved on Thursday the sale of Slovenia-based sports equipment maker Elan to the Finnish-owned KJK fund. The decision came four months after the sale contract was signed between the Luxembourg-based KJK Fund III and Russian-owned Wiltan Enterprises, which bought the company three years earlier from the state. The purchase is set to be complete in the summer. The sale was announced last spring after Wiltan detected interest from potential buyers as the company posted good results.
Luka Koper to pay EUR 18.62m in dividends or EUR 1.33 per share
KOPER - The supervisory and management boards of the port operator Luka Koper have proposed that EUR 18.62m in distributable profit go for dividends at EUR 1.33 gross per share. The proposal will be put to vote at the annual general meeting scheduled for 28 June. The proposed EUR 18.62m constitutes more than half of the total distributable profit of EUR 29.25m for last year, with the remaining EUR 10.63m staying undistributed, Luka Koper said.
Cetis group reports nearly 70% drop in profit
CELJE - Cetis, one of the top printing companies in Europe specialising in secure documents, posted a group net profit of EUR 2.4m, down 67.6% over the year before. The group's revenue dropped by 2.2% to EUR 59.7m, according to the company's business report. The core company generated EUR 33.4m in revenue, up 2.3% over 2017. Net profit was 28.5% lower, dropping to EUR 2.02m. The group generated 54% of its revenue abroad, of which 27% was generated in Africa.
Slovenian, Croatian unions oppose retirement age raise to 67
SAMOBOR, Croatia - Representatives of the largest trade union confederations of Slovenia and Croatia had their annual Labour Day get-together to adopt a joint statement which calls for prudent reflection and a broad social consensus when it comes to plans to increase the retirement age. The statement, titled 67 is Too Much, has been signed by Lidija Jerkič, the head of Slovenia's ZSSS, and Mladen Novosel, the president of Croatia's SSSH. The SSSH and ZSSS insist that all changes to the pension insurance legislation must be made with the mandatory approval of the social partners.
Major road link with Austria to be closed for over a month
PODLJUBELJ - One of the two main links with the Austrian state of Carinthia, the road leading from Tržič up to the Ljubelj pass, will be closed for around a month and a half due to rockslide prevention measures, the Infrastructure Agency announced. An increased volume of traffic is thus expected at the Karavanke motorway tunnel, which will serve as a detour. The road was closed after a part of it was hit by a minor rockslide on Sunday.
