Bojan Dremelj, chairman of national telco Telekom A big step forward for Telekom's expansion to Southeast Europe would be the purchase of Slovenian Sinfonika, owner/co-owner of ISP's in several former Yugoslav countries, as takeover talks are expected to continue. ins(60682)

Regional internet service provider (ISP) Sinfonika has confirmed that it expects takeover talks with national telco Telekom Slovenije (TS) to continue.

At the end of last year TS was seriously considering buying Sinfonika, owner/co-owner of ISP's in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia-Montenegro. Sinfonika board chairman Boris Hadalin said that negotiations had stagnated earlier this year, while TS board chairman Bojan Dremelj said that he would not comment on the particular project and that he did not know anything relating to Sinfonika.

Dremelj did confirm that they were interested in expanding to southeast European markets where TS has already had talks with possible partners. This is the reason Sinfonika, Slovenia's fourth largest ISP with revenues of 16.7 million euros last year and profit of 83.5 thousand euros, would be a natural choice for TS. TS is currently interested in buying Croatia's second largest ISP Iskon, but faces stiff competition from Croatian telco T-HT, owned by Deutsche Telekom, which is also keen on buying the ISP. Unofficially, rumours say T-HT has a much better chance than TS in purchasing Iskon.

Official: Delta Interested In Mercator Takeover

According to Delta vice-president Milka Forcan, the Serbian holding company is interested in taking over Slovenian retailer Mercator and is now seeking a way to carry it out since the majority of Mercator's stock is owned by Slovenian companies holding Istrabenz and brewery Pivovarna Laško. This is first official information from Delta which entails the company's intention to join the ownership structure of Slovenia's largest retailer. Forcan added that no matter what, sooner or later Delta will enter the Slovenian market. As reported, Delta wanted to take over drinks producer Fructal, however Fructal's owner, Pivovarna Laško, was not interested.

Adria Airways Seeking Capital Increase, Rejects Bankruptcy Claims

In the first three months of this year national air carrier Adria Airways (AA) made a loss of four million euros, the same amount it lost in the same period last year. AA's total losses for last year amounted to nine million euros. AA board member Tadej Tufek said he expects AA will end the year without a loss or profit, but only if the year goes well without any hitches. He added that AA's debt is under control and that the company employs the right amount of employees. AA and the union representing its employees will sign an agreement that will cut employee salaries by five per cent. Tufek rejected rumours that say the company will face bankruptcy, and added that they are considering a capital increase. Whether AA's majority owners (the state-run Pension Management Fund and Slovenian Restitution Fund) or somebody else will invest fresh capital in AA is a matter of discussion, Tufek also added.

Scandinavian Tour Uncovers New Practices For Slovenia

A government delegation that recently returned together with representatives of seven trade unions from a tour of Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) assessed that some of Scandinavia's best practices in the labour market and technological development could also be implemented in Slovenia. The Development Office and the trade unions representatives were united in the view that while the different Scandinavian models could not be directly transposed to Slovenia, examples of best practice could be extracted. State Secretary at the Development Office, Andrej Horvat, said that representatives of trade unions were invited to reduce the chance of information being asymmetric, which could have happened if each party had made separate visits. The state ended up footing the bill for the trip, which amounted to 23 thousand euros.

Chinese Competitor Keen On Acquiring Iskraemeco Stock

Two of metering producer Iskraemeco's competitors, Chinese company Holley and European company Actaris, have both shown interest for newly issued stocks to be offered by Iskraemeco. As reported, Iskraemeco's board is eager to attain a loan, worth at least 10.5 million euros, and plans to issue 100 thousand shares (approximately one third of the company). Currently, 13 companies have shown interest for the newly issued stocks, including four Slovenian companies; holding company KD Holding, brokerage Poteza, manufacturer of parts of electricity equipment Iskra ISD and electronics conglomerate Iskra. As planned, the buyer will be picked by the beginning of May. Moreover, Iskraemeco's management board announced losses in the amount of 13.78 million euros for last year.

Bank of Slovenia: Short Term Tolar Deposits Most Popular

According to the Slovenian central bank, Banka Slovenije (BS), savings deposits in tolars are rising faster than for foreign currencies. The main reason for this can be attributed to the fact that interest rates for tolar deposits are higher than for foreign currencies and also that the tolar's exchange rate is stable. In the first two months of this year, the value of savings deposits in tolars rose 166.6 million euros and 119.1 million euros for foreign currencies. BS also has noticed that short term deposits are increasing, while long term deposits are decreasing. As Matjaž Noč from BS explained, the phenomenon is the result of a change in long and short term interest rates. In the period starting from Slovenia's entry to ERM 2 (end of June 2004) to the end of last year, the interest rate for short term deposits dropped 0.6 percentage points (to 3.1 per cent) while the interest rate for long term deposits dropped 1.7 per cent (to 2.7 per cent).

LJSE: Mercator Falls While Its Two Largest Shareholders Rise

At the Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE) yesterday the SBI 20 benchmark index rose 0.37 per cent, closing on 4,819 points. Retailer Mercator's two-week run finally came to end. Amid rumours that had an English company interested in a 24.99 per cent stake, Mercator's stock surged before finally stumbling yesterday, falling one per cent on 2.8 million euros turnover. Brewery Pivovarna Laško, Mercator's largest owner, rose two per cent on 440 thousand euros turnover, while Mercator's second largest owner, holding company Istrabenz, advanced two per cent on turnover of almost 280 thousand euros. Pharmaceutical company Krka also finished the day in the black, rising one per cent on turnover of little more than 1.2 million euros. On the free market, the majority of investment funds ended the day in the red, pushing the PIX investment fund index down 1.51 per cent to 3,999 points.

Balkan Report: Crobex Down 2.4 Per Cent In a Week

In Zagreb share prices declined as the Crobex benchmark index slipped 0.6 per cent. The Crobex in the past week has lost 2.4 per cent. Among blue chips, the biggest decliners were food processing company Podravka, tobacco-tourism holding Adris Grupa and telecommunications company Ericsson Nikola Tesla. All lost around 1.5 per cent.

Industrial Output Up 8.1 Per Cent Year-on-year In February

Slovenia's industrial output dropped by 3.1 per cent in February over the month before, but increased 8.1 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest report by the National Statistical Office. Compared to February lat year, the manufacturing sector upped its output by 8.7 per cent, while volumes in electricity, gas and water supply were up 2.3 per cent and in mining by three per cent.

Prodi's Election Positive For Slovenia-Italy Relations

Early projections of parliamentary elections in Italy show Romano Prodi, leader of the centre-left party, will most likely become the country's next prime minister with between 50 and 54 per cent of the popular vote. "I believe this is a bright point for our cooperation with Italy," said Tomaž Može, director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Koper. He added that cooperation between the countries blossomed with Prodi's first mandate and that now he expected the same.

Logistics Company Buys 2.1 Million Euros Worth Of Vehicles

Intereuropa Transport, a subsidiary of logistics group Intereuropa, has bought 17 new commercial vehicles worth 2.1 million euros, Intereuropa board chairman Andrej Lovšin said yesterday, when trucks were past to the drivers. Lovšin explained that they have purchased trailers specially designed for household appliances transport, which can, however, be easily modified to transport other types of cargo as well. Intereuropa plans another purchase of trucks this year.