October 27 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's finance ministry said the European Commission has not accepted its proposal to postpone the sale of Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) by up to three years.
Slovenia's finance minister Mateja Vranicar Erman met with competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager in Brussels on Thursday, to seek an amendment to the contract, which the Commission and Slovenia concluded in 2013, the finance ministry said in a press release.
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Under the deal, Slovenia committed itself to selling 75% of NLB, the country's largest bank, within four years in return for the Commission's 2013 decision to grant state aid to the bank in the midst of a banking crisis in the country.
The Slovenian government has argued that if it goes ahead with the privatisation as originally planned, the process would be impeded to a great extent by lawsuits launched against NLB in Croatia over Yugoslav-era savings deposits. Namely, NLB had been taken to court in Croatia over the deposits repaid to the bank's former customers in Croatia by Croatian banks, which then decided to seek compensation from the Slovenian bank in court.
This situation would drag down the price of the bank, the Slovenian government believes.
The Commission has already amended the initial contract earlier this year by granting Slovenia permission to sell NLB in two stages by end-2018.
On June 8, the Slovenian government refused to approve the minimum offer price and the offer price range for NLB shares, following which the procedure for the sale of NLB via an initial public offering (IPO) was cancelled.
Slovenia's finance ministry also said on Thursday that it will discuss further options with the Commission over the coming period, which should lead to "a solution that will be credible and fair for both parties".
An option proposed by the finance ministry is to sell a small part of the bank's shares to selected investors before launching an IPO.
NLB has been 100% state-owned since 2013, when the Slovenian government stepped in to recapitalise it and two other lenders - NKBM and Abanka, narrowly avoiding an international bailout.