Update July 2000: Slovenia

1 Company Watch and Newcomers

EON is establishing new foundations. Last year we briefly reported on Eon d.o.o., which was co-founded by a former Slovene foreign minister Mr Zoran Thaler in 1998. Last year the company made headlines by acquiring the most popular Slovene server, Mat’kurja – a guide to virtual Slovenia, which was developed at the Jozef Stefan Institute and launched on 23 November 1993. Eon was the first Slovene company that provided secure Internet commerce services (CASP as of end 1999). It also launched a portal that soon became a very popular site within the Slovene Internet user community. This year, Eon continues to set the milestones of the new economy in Slovenia. Indeed, an international venture capital fund, the AIG Emerging Europe Infrastructure Fund (EEIF), with its headquarters in London, decided that its second European investment would be in Eon. The fund invested 8.5 million US dollars and acquired a nearly 50% share of the company, while the share of Posta Slovenije d.o.o. was reduced. Following the investment, Mr Keith Miles became Eon’s CFO while Mr Thaler retained the position of CEO. Eon quickly moved to utilise a stronger capital base and acquired a majority stake in one of the Slovene top Web design & network development solution providers while continuing with the implementation of its strategy to become a leading provider of secure e-commerce services in Slovenia. Moreover, it plans to become a regional player and the first step on this path will be the establishment of a branch in Croatia.

IBM Slovenia signs contracts with two new local partners. On 18 April, IBM Slovenija d.o.o. and Jerovsek Computers d.o.o. signed a partnership contract. The companies, which are both well known and highly reputed among Slovene IT users, will jointly provide a wide range of domestically and globally established products, services and knowledge. Although the companies are competitors in certain market segments, e.g. in PCs, they intend to co-operate in those fields where they could jointly reach customers more easily. According to Mr Iztok Klancnik, general manager of IBM, and Mr Dusan Sitar, general manager of Jerovsek Computers, the main objective of co-operation is offering better services to users, increasing customer satisfaction and consequently market share & revenues. They will focus mainly on SMEs. Later that month, IBM announced another partnership with Hermes Plus d.d..

2 Mergers and Acquisitions

POP TV acquires Kanal A. Super Plus d.d., whose main shareholder is PRO Plus d.o.o., acquired Kanal A d.d.. PRO Plus broadcasts* two TV programmes, i.e. POP TV and Gajba TV. The major shareholder of PRO Plus is CME. After the agreeable cancellation of the intended merger between CME and SBS last year, CME announced plans to acquire the TV broadcasting company Kanal A. SBS, which has (through its Slovene subsidiary, Impaler d.o.o.) a 33% shareholding in Kanal A, gave CME the pre-emptive right to buy its shares in Kanal A. The Competition Protection Office initiated proceedings of assessment of the acquisition regarding the market share and the Law on Prevention of Restriction of Competition (O.G. RS, No. 56/99).

* The broadcaster of POP TV is: MMTV d.o.o. / Tele 59 d.o.o. / TV Robin d.o.o. and TV production company PRO Plus d.o.o. Source: Radio and TV programmes in Slovenia

The broadcaster of Gajba TV is: Euro 3TV d.o.o. / Tele 59 d.o.o. / Idea TV kanal 10 d.o.o. and TV production company PRO Plus d.o.o.

Source: Radio and TV programmes in Slovenia, The Broadcasting Council of the Republic of Slovenia, December 1999.

3 Nominations, Retirements, ...

Slovenia has a new Government. On 7 June, the National Assembly endorsed a new Slovene government, led by Prime Minister Andrej Bajuk. The new caretaker Government, endorsed 60 days after the government of Janez Drnovsek lost a vote of confidence in the National Assembly, will govern the country until regular elections in the autumn. Amongst the 17 ministers, six are members of the SLS+SKD Slovene People's Party, five are members of the Social Democrats (SDS) and five are not members of either of these two parties, but are closely associated with them.

With the new Government, several key persons related to various Information Society projects or policies were replaced. The secretary general of the Government is Dr Verica Trstenjak. She came from the Ministry of Science and Technology where she was state secretary for international co-operation. She represented Slovenia in Eureka and was responsible for the Slovene co-operation in the 4th and 5th framework programmes.

The Ministry of Science and Technology will continue to be headed by Dr Lojze Marincek. Dr Cene Bavec will remain state secretary for technology while the new state secretary for science is Dr Anton Jeglic. As already mentioned, Dr Verica Testenjak, former state secretary for international co-operation, became secretary general of the Government.

The post of minister of education and sport will be held by Mr Lovro Sturm. He is an established expert in the field of constitutional and legal matters, state administration and legal informatics. His contributions in the field of personal identification security are particularly recognised.

The Ministry of Culture will be headed by Mr Rudi Seligo, an essay writer and dramatist who received the Presern Award (the highest Slovene award for work in the arts). He led the parliamentary committee for culture from 1990 to 1992, and was chairman of the board at Radio and Television Slovenia from 1990 to 1994.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs will be headed by Mr Joze Zagozen, and the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs will be lead by Mr Miha Brejc. The post of the minister of small business and tourism will continue to be held by Mr Janko Razgorsek, and the post of the minister of health will be held by Mr Andrej Brucan.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications will continue to be led by Mr Anton Bergauer and Dr Miro Rozman will remain state secretary for post and telecommunications.

The Ministry of Economic Relations and Development will continue to be headed by Dr Marjan Senjur. Ms Vojka Ravbar withdrew from the position of state secretary for economic relations before the endorsement of the new Government. The new state secretary is Mr Igor Strmsek.

For more details on the composition of the Government visit the following home page: http://www.uvi.si/vlada/eng.

Changes also in governmental agencies. Ms Zdenka Jagarinec withdrew as the director of the Public Relations and Media Office. She became the editor of the daytime programme at POP TV. The new director of the Public Relations and Media Office is Ms Alenka Paulin.

The Government appointed Dr Janez Potocnik as acting director of the Office for European Affairs. Dr Potocnik is head of the negotiating team for accession of the Republic of Slovenia to the European Union.

New Government appoints new chief executives of Telekom Slovenije and Posta Slovenije. At its second session on 15 June, the new Government appointed Mr Marjan Podobnik, the former President of the Slovene People’s Party, as chairman of the board and chief executive of Telekom Slovenije d.d.. In 1999, Telekom Slovenije was the leading Slovene company with regard to net profit with the total net profit amounting 7.9 milliard Slovene tolars (approx. € 38.5 million). According to Mr Janez Jansa, head of the governmental personnel commission (Jansa is also the current minister of defence and president of the Social Democratic Party), the Government did not consider Telekom’s results when it removed Mr Peter Tevz from his post and appointed Mr Podobnik as new chief executive. Mr Stojan Zdolsek, an individual shareholder of Telekom Slovenije, appealed to the regional court in Ljubljana against the governmental decision and suggested that it withheld the execution of the decision on the appointment of Podobnik. In its intermediate decision, the regional court decided the governmental decision was null and void. The proceedings, however, have not been completed.

At the same session, the Government removed Mr Alfonz Podgorelec from the post of chief executive of Posta Slovenije d.d. and appointed Ms Marija Ribic, a former deputy secretary general of the Government.

Brane Gruban is a new director of Literal. Literal was co-founded by Mr Miso Alkalaj, director of the supercomputing centre at the Jozef Stefan Institute. A group headed by Mr Alkalaj conceived, designed and implemented Mat’kurja – a guide to virtual Slovenia. After Mat’kurja was acquired by Eon last year (c.f. above), Literal took over its maintenance. Earlier this quarter, Mr Brane Gruban, a former partner in Pristop Communications d.o.o., one of Slovenia’s leading PR agencies, became the new director and co-owner of Literal d.o.o..

Former Director of ELES now in charge of IT at Autocommerce. On 6 April, the Government removed Dr Ivo Banic from the post of director of ELES – Elektro Slovenija d.o.o. and appointed Mr Vekoslav Korosec as acting director. According to a government press release, Mr Banic was replaced because he opposed to the opening of the electrical power market. Mr Banic now became a key person at Autocommerce d.d., responsible for IT, replacing Mr Janez Skrubej. Autocommerce, whose main fields of activity are vehicles, trade, tourism and finances, has already become an important player in telecommunications. It acquired Perftech d.o.o., the second largest commercial ISP, last year and, according to some sources, has plans to acquire some other ISPs as well. Autocommerce also has a 36% share in Debitel d.d., a mobile service provider and reseller.

General secretary of Slovene Electronic and Electrical Engineering Association resigned. This quarter was very turbulent in terms of changes at the top of various agencies and companies. Yet the resignation of Mr Pukl as secretary general of a strong business association came as a surprise. Although he did not want to speak about the reasons for his decision, it seemed that he had been offered the job of general manager at one of largest Slovene electronics companies.