June 2 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's state holding company SDH, which is preparing to sell Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), said its supervisory board has declined to approve the price range of the shares in the country's largest lender, thus transferring the task to the government.
Last month, SDH said it would sell NLB in two parts by the end of 2018.
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The price range for NLB shares was set by SDH's management board, but after the supervisory board refused to adopt it, the task of determining the price will now fall on the Slovenian government, SDH said in a statement late on Thursday.
"The supervisory board refused to grant its consent to the proposal of the offer price range for NLB shares and advised the SDH management board to act in accordance with Article 281, Paragraph 5 of ZGD-1 which stipulates that if the supervisory board refuses to give its consent, the management board may require the granting of consent to be decided at a general meeting which, in the case of SDH, is the government", the holding company explained.
In May, NLB and SDH announced their intention to proceed with an initial public offering of ordinary shares on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE) and global depositary receipts (GDRs) of NLB on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
NLB showed a minor capital shortfall under the adverse scenario of the stress test of the banking system conducted by the European Central Bank in October 2014.
In December 2013, the Slovenian government had to step in and recapitalize the country's three biggest lenders - NLB, NKBM and Abanka, narrowly avoiding an international bailout.
SDH is managing state-owned assets and runs the privatisation process.