Business

16 Dec 2019, 14:05 PM

STA, 16 December 2019 - The government appears prepared to making construction of a new nuclear reactor a cornerstone of Slovenia's plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in line with EU goals. Prime Minister Marjan Šarec told parliament on Monday that without unit two at the Krško nuclear power station, the goal would not be achieved.

"The fact is ... that if we don't build a second reactor at the nuclear power station and close coal-fired power stations, we will not achieve environmental goals," Šarec said during questions time. "Things are very simple or very complicated, depending how you look at it."

In summer, Šarec re-ignited a long-simmering debate about the replacement of the existing reactor at Krško, which is currently slated for closure in 2043 but whose useful life could yet be extended.

At the recent EU summit he reiterated the commitment to carbon neutrality and said achieving it would require preserving nuclear and abandoning coal; Slovenia has only one coal-fired power station, in Šoštanj, and a backup gas-fired power station in Brestanica.

The dilemma whether or not Slovenia should go for nuclear is expected to be resolved in the long-term climate strategy until 2050 and the national energy concept, key documents laying out Slovenia's energy future, which have both been delayed for years.

Šarec defended the delay today saying that it was "impossible to change in a year what had not even been under consideration for twenty years before."

All our stories on nuclear power in Slovenia are here

16 Dec 2019, 11:54 AM

Two years ago, December 2017, blockchain mania reached its peak as the price of Bitcoin hit an all-time high. This pulled up the valuations of a dizzying number of other tokens and start-ups, a fair few based in Slovenia – with the country receiving over 5% of global investments in blockchain projects – and introduced the wider world to terms such as FOMO, HODL and “to the moon”. The mass hysteria may have waned as prices fell and observers became more familiar with terms such as "buy the dip", "exit scam" and SFYL, but the underlying technology is still around, and Slovenia is still punching above its weight on the scene.

Ljubljana is the home of BTC City, which is and isn’t “BTC City”, as the name is unrelated to the abbreviation for Bitcoin, but it does still promote itself as a brick-and-mortar location where such “money” can be spent, as well as hosting the European Blockchain Hub...which today (16 December 2019) declared bankruptcy.

The latest news in this regard is last week’s announcement, made by the Government Communication Office, that the country has launched a national test blockchain infrastructure, SI-Chain, which will enable testing of existing and new applications for the public and private sector. Not only is Slovenia the first EU Member State to establish such infrastructure, but the only the second in the world, after China.

SI-Chain was set up by the Hashnet in cooperation with Telemach in November. Hashnet owns one of the fastest and most energy-efficient distributed ledger technologies in the world, and the managing director of the Slovenian branch, Tadej Slapnik, has said that the goal of the project is to integrate the technology into the business models of companies and public services.

The news is related to the 2018 call from the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology for demo/pilot projects in 2018 that would receive support from €73 million of EU funds, with the foci being on blockchain, AI and other converging technologies (IoT, big data, ML, predictive analytics, AR, VR, MR, 3D and so forth). Some of the aims in supporting these projects will be to help the government create regulatory solutions for specific industry verticals using blockchain, the introduction of smart contracts into Slovenian corporate law, and with regulation of digital entities and regulatory sandboxes for different fields of industry and the public sector.

All our stories on blockchain in Slovenia are here

12 Dec 2019, 12:34 PM

STA, 12 December 2019 - Slovenian companies Saop and Mit Informatika, which specialise in enterprise software, have signed a business combination agreement that creates a new major player on the Slovenian IT market that they say will be better equipped to compete with global software providers.

Saop, founded in 1987 and since 2016 a member of the Czech group Solitea, has acquired the smaller Mit Informatika outright for an undisclosed sum.

"The clients of both companies will reap long-term benefits from the combination. By expanding the team, we will be better equipped to offer clients a long-term and stable partnership," Saop director Petra Šinigoj was quoted as saying in a press release.

Mit Informatika had sales of EUR 1.1 million last year and a net profit of almost EUR 200,000. The much larger Saop had sales of EUR 6.3 million in 2017, the latest year for which data are publicly available, and a net profit in excess of half a million euro.

Saop has subsidiaries in Croatia and Serbia and Mit Informatika director Marjeta Povalej said the deal paved the way for expansion of the company's operations to the two markets.

Saop specialises in accounting software and says it counts a quarter of accounting firms and a third of schools in Slovenia among its clients.

Mit Informatika is a specialist for software applications for the manufacturing sector and construction.

11 Dec 2019, 17:11 PM

The Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac, 33-year-old founder of Rimac Automobili and producer of the world's first electric supercar, has announced his cooperation with Lastinski inženiring, as reported on Total Croatia News. The Slovenian company is run by Samo Omerzel, a former Minister of Infrastructure, Energy, Transport and Spatial Planning.

The Hyper E-Car Lab, to be based in Novo Mesto, will be used by Rimac Automobili to test battery and propulsion systems for its own cars, and will also offer these services to other companies.

Mate Rimac is quoted as saying: "The testing of electric powertrains and battery systems is a relatively new area and all manufacturers are struggling for testing capacities, and although we have certain capacities for that in the company in Croatia, which we're also upgrading, we still need more capacity. He added that with the rise of electric vehicles this project should help Slovenia to develop its own capacities and skills in this area, with cars already being one of the country’s most important export industries.

Slovenian media reports claim that Rimac and Samo Omerzel have received €3.4 million euros from Slovenia’s Ministry of the Economy to develop the test centre project, which is intended as "a high-tech laboratory, which will allow for the testing of batteries, propulsion motors and electronics for the batteries of high-capacity electric vehicles."

11 Dec 2019, 09:28 AM

STA, 10 December 2019 - The supervisory board of the telecoms incumbent Telekom Slovenije appointed on Tuesday Tomaž Seljak the new chairman for a full, four-year term. Seljak previously served as interim chairman following the resignation of Matjaž Merkan in mid-November.

Meanwhile appointed to the management board for a four-year term was Matjaž Beričič, who will be in charge of technology, the post previously held by the new chairman.

Seljak, who started his second term on the management board in May 2018, started working in Telekom Slovenije in 1997, becoming the head of the service in charge of the telecommunication cable network in 2004.

Before being appointed to the management board, he also headed the sector for the elimination of malfunctions and the sector for access networks.

Commenting on the appointment, chief supervisor Barbara Kürner Čad said that the company was facing numerous challenges related to the implementation of the strategic plan and new development and technological milestones.

"Telekom Slovenije needs continuity of management, which provides the company with stability, and excellent knowledge and experience in telecommunications," she added.

According to Kürner Čad, Seljak has proved to be a prudent manager with the knack for development of operations and as a good expert in telecommunications and trends.

Seljak succeeds Merkan after the latter resigned as chairman and CEO of the state-owned company on 14 November less than two months on the job.

While Telekom Slovenije said at the time that Merkan had resigned for personal reasons, Radio Slovenija said he stepped down after refusing to launch an inquiry into his predecessor Rudolf Skobe.

Skobe's tenure has been in the spotlight after Telekom has been ordered by an arbitration court to pay millions to the Greek Antenna Group, which wants to exit a media joint venture.

The public broadcaster TV Slovenija had meanwhile quoted anonymous sources privy to information that he was not up to the job.

Today, the supervisors also adopted the company's business plan for 2020, projecting EUR 676 million in operating revenue, EUR 210.6 million in EBITDA, EUR 27.5 million in net profit and EUR 209.7 million in investments.

All our business stories can be found here

10 Dec 2019, 18:16 PM

STA, 10 December 2019 - Shares listed on the Ljubljana and Zagreb stock exchanges were described as excellent investment opportunities as the two stock markets held a joint investment conference in Ljubljana on Tuesday.

The shares comprising the benchmark SBI TOP index are undervalued, considering comparable indices in the region, Mark Štemberger of the brokerage Ilirika told the event in presenting the latest trends in Slovenia.

Slovenia's economy is projected to expand for the seventh consecutive year in 2020. Although growth is slowing down and despite dampened business confidence, Ilirika expects positive labour market trends to continue.

The listed companies have been doing well this year and mostly above projections. Pharma company Krka and chemical company Cinkarna Celje attained the planned annual profitability levels by the end of September, Štemberger reported.

He said that the dividend yield of the companies listed in SBI TOP over the past 10 years was almost double that of the companies in the benchmark index of the Zagreb Stock Exchange, and substantially above those on other stock markets in Central Europe.

Ilirika would advise buying virtually all shares in the index, especially given the low-interest environment and the high indebtedness and high dividend yield of Slovenian public companies.

Similarly, Matko Maravić from the Zagreb brokerage Intercapital Securities argued in favour of investing in shares. He too described Croatian stocks as undervalued.

The joint investment conference featured 15 major public companies from both countries as well as 25 investment companies and banks and 34 analysts and investors from Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey, Estonia, Malta and Sweden.

The joint event is being held in Ljubljana for the first time, being usually held in Zagreb in spring. The Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE) is part of the Zagreb Stock Exchange Group.

The CEO of the LJSE manager, Aleš Ipavec said the exchange was trying to diversify its client base and expand on the range of investors.

After NLB bank shares were listed on the LJSE prime market in November last year, Ipavec indicated the possibility of new listings on the standard market.

The LJSE also presented awards for best member, which went to Intercapital Securities, while Krka took the awards for best prime market share and for best investor relations.

10 Dec 2019, 10:10 AM

STA, 9 December 2019 - Compared to the EU average, Slovenian companies are more convinced that corruption is a widespread phenomenon in the country, according to a Eurobarometer survey, with the share of such companies in Slovenia standing at 90%, compared to 63% in the entire EU.

The survey, sponsored by the European Commission and published on International Anti-Corruption Day, shows that the perception of corruption has increased in Slovenia in the last two years.

While two years ago 77% of the surveyed companies said corruption was a widespread phenomenon in the country, this share increased to 90% this year.

The share of those who think that corruption is a rare occurrence has meanwhile dropped from 9% to 6%, and the share of those who could not tell has dropped from 14% to 4%.

However, the discrepancy between the perception and experience of corruption remains very high.

As many as 96% of the Slovenian companies polled answered in the negative to the question whether someone from the state bodies had requested or expected a present, favour or additional money for key documents and permits.

This is 11 percentage points less than in 2017, the survey notes, adding that only 4% of the companies said they knew at least one such case, which is 4 percentage points less than two years ago.

Slovenian companies are meanwhile more convinced that corruption was what prevented them for winning a public contract in the last three years. The share of such companies stands at 50% or 6 percentage points more than in 2017.

On the other hand, 41% of the surveyed companies believe that this was not the case, down five percentage points.

Slovenian companies are sceptical about the prospects of corruption prevention, with the share of companies in Slovenia which believe that the police are not likely to catch corrupt persons or companies or take measures against them.

As many as 70% of the surveyed companies in Slovenia believe that perpetrators of corrupt acts, even if arrested, would not be indicted, and 75% think that courts would not impose high fines or prison sentences on them.

But corruption is apparently not among the biggest problem for companies in Slovenia and the EU, as it is close to the bottom of the list along cronyism and access to financial sources.

Topping the list are tax rates, the fast-changing legislation and complicated administrative procedures.

The survey was carried out between 30 September and 9 October among 180 Slovenian companies.

All our stories on corruption can be found here

08 Dec 2019, 17:29 PM

STA, 8 December 2019 - International trade in goods and services remained Slovenia's most important cross-border economic activity in 2018. The country was very well integrated in international merchandise trade, but fared worse in services, show the latest data released by the Statistics Office.

The value of exports and imports of goods and services rose annually by 9.3% and 10.4%, respectively. The stock of inward foreign direct investment was up 8.6% year-on-year.

The share of exports and imports of goods and services in the GDP reached 85.4% and 77.1%, respectively, putting Slovenia 5th and 7th among EU countries.

Only Luxembourg, Malta, Ireland and Slovakia had higher shares of exports of goods and services.

Slovenia's integration in international trade measured by the indicator of trade integration of goods, by far exceeded the EU average.

Rising by 2.4 points to 66.8% of its GDP, the country's rate of integration in merchandise trade was below only Slovakia and Hungary.

The country did a bit worse in the integration of services in international trade; with a 14.4% of GDP it placed 13th in the EU, yet still above the EU average of 12.4%.

An OECD study on foreign or domestic value added shares in countries' exports provides an additional insight into Slovenia's high level of globalisation and dependence on international trade.

Throughout the entire period covered by the study, Slovenia's shares of the foreign value added in exports were higher compared to the OECD and EU-28 averages.

In 2016, the last reference year in the study, its share of foreign value added in exports was 31.6%, far above the OECD average of 7.1% and the EU average of 11.6%.

Foreign direct investment in Slovenia at the end of 2018 amounted to EUR 15.2 billion, up 8.6% year on year, accounting for 33.1% of GDP, up 0.6 points.

The country's direct investment abroad totalled EUR 6.1 billion, up 1.6%, accounting for 13.2% of GDP, down 0.6 points.

You can dig deeper into the data at SURS great website

08 Dec 2019, 10:29 AM

STA, 6 December 2019 - Gabrijel Škof, the new chairman of Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH / Slovenski državni holding - SDH), believes the strategy for managing state assets needs to be revised and adjusted to the changes in the portfolio as well as economic and political changes.

The strategy for managing state assets was adopted in 2015 and a lot has changed since then in SSH's portfolio and also in business and politics, he said. "This alone is reason enough for a new strategy," Škof said in an interview with the STA.

He thinks the Finance Ministry is also aware of that, which is why talks on this had been under way even before he took over at SSH.

Now, the results of those talks will be revised and then the views of the new management will be sent to the ministry again, said Škof, former chief executive of insurer Adriatic Slovenica, who was appointed SSH chairman in August.

In 2016, SSH proposed changes to the classification of assets. Škof admits this is partly a political matter but thinks the valid strategies for individual fields must be taken into account here and that the classification must reflect that too.

Škof believes transferring the strategic investments to the state, which is envisaged by the end of 2020 by an amendment to the 2017 Slovenian compensation fund act, would mean that SSH would lose its financial independence and its independence in general.

Talks on this are under way with the finance minister, as the sources of the holding's financing will subsequently have to be determined anew.

"With the transfer of these investments SSH will lose its financial independence. Maybe somebody would say it will not lose its independence as such but I think these things are quite connected," Škof said, pointing to the OECD's guidelines for managing state-owned companies.

The SSH management is "pretty sure" that plans regarding the return on equity (ROE) in companies in which the state has a share will be realised. The ROE is to reach 5.9% in 2020.

"Even if the goal is 0.3 percentage points lower than the projection for this year, given the circumstances, a 5.9% profitability is quite optimistic," he said.

He expects no major impact from the projected slow-down of economic growth in 2020, so this was only part taken into account in the projections for 2020.

However, the slow-down is already starting to affect some areas, for example the transshipment at the port operator Luka Koper, cargo transport on roads and railways, and in particular orders in the automotive industry.

SSH meanwhile still awaits a government decision on the management of state investments in tourism.

Škof finds the proposal on the setting up of a state hospitality fund, tabled in July, sensible, given that the state holds a significant share in tourist companies. Currently, there is no synergy among them because they are so fragmented, he said.

He believes it would be best for SSH to manage the fund, but this would require some staffing reinforcement. "With the results we have been achieving in recent years, we have proved we can manage companies and increase profitability."

Škof also supports the idea about a potential entry of private capital into the fund's ownership. He could not, however, say how big a share of the fund could be offered to such investors.

06 Dec 2019, 12:30 PM

STA, 5 December 2019 - The government adopted on Thursday a 2020-2025 plan of investments in transport and transport infrastructure. Investments totalling EUR 5.6 billion are planned in the next six years.

Under the plan, the funds will be spent on air and maritime transport, investments in and reconstruction of state roads and toll roads, modernisation of railways, sustainable measures and traffic control.

EUR 653 million will be earmarked next year, EUR 718 million in 2021 and EUR 1.1 billion in the following year.

The funding will drop somewhat, to EUR 992.5 million in 2023, and will be almost level in 2024 (EUR 997.5 million), while reaching the highest annual value in 2025, EUR 1.15 billion.

Between EUR 431.9 million and EUR 453 million will be available annually for regular maintenance of roads and railways, and public transportation subsidies.

While the funding of railways and sustainable mobility is increasing, the amount of planned funds for state roads and toll roads is lower than that planned in the resolution on the national transport development programme.

The biggest departure is observed in roads, where investments in construction and reconstruction are being delayed for the coming years.

While the Infrastructure Agency received EUR 260 million and EUR 280 million in 2018 and 2019, respectively, as planned in the resolution, the funds are being reduced to EUR 212 million and EUR 213 million in 2020 and 2021.

The government said it would start revising next year the resolution to take into account the national energy and climate plan and studies of regional railway lines, including the Ljubljana railway hub.

06 Dec 2019, 11:11 AM

STA, 5 December 2019 - Pharmaceutical company Lek has been declared the top Slovenian employer in 2019, the first time in nine years that it has beaten rival drug maker Krka. The title is awarded by the jobs portal Mojedelo.

The award is the result of a poll involving 19,000 users of the jobs portal that measured various aspects of the reputation of companies as employers or potential employers, Styria Digital Marketplaces, which owns Mojedelo, said on Thursday.

Lek and Krka were followed in the rankings by energy companies Petrol and Gen-I, and telco Telekom Slovenije.

Lek, which is owned by the pharma giant Novartis, said the award recognised "that we have created an environment for our colleagues in which everyone can find their inspiration".

All our stories about employment in Slovenia are here

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