Government of Slovenia against sale of NLB Bank in 2017

The parties making up the Slovenian coalition government took the position against an urgent sale of the majority stock of Nova Ljubljanska Banka before the end of the current year, after the recent refusal by the European Commission of the government's proposition to extend the deadline period for the state's withdrawal from the ownership structure by three years, Al Jazeera reports.

– A sale under these conditions and in these circumstances in unacceptable and that will be our position in future talks with the European Commission – Simona Kuster Lipicer of the party lead by Prime Minister Miro Cerar said and added that a new, middle solution, such as would satisfy both Ljubljana and Brussels, should be found.

The president of the second most important coalition party and the minister of foreign affairs, Karl Erjavec, said following the meeting that another reason why it was irrational to sell NLB at the moment was the unresolved issue of old NLB savers in Croatia, due to which its potential price is considerably lower.

The biggest Slovenian bank recovered after a capital increase of over EUR 2 billion by the state in 2013. The bankruptcy was thereby avoided, but Slovenia promised at the time to have the bank privatized, following which the state stock in it should not exceed 25%.

The government gave up on the NLB's sale and listing at the stock exchange, planned for 2017, following an estimate that it would not be able to get more for the bank than its book value, far less than the amount of state funds invested in it through two instances of a capital increase in the past 20 years.

NLB Banka a.d. Beograd

Vlada Republike Slovenije

Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d. Ljubljana

EUROPEAN COMMISSION Bruxelles

European Commission

Simona Kuster Lipicer

Miro Cerar

Karl Erjavec

old savings

privatization of NLB Bank