Management of Slovenia fuel retailer Petrol quits (updated)

Petrol dd Ljubljana

24/10/2019 22:09

(Updates with quotes, details)
    By Marja Novak
    LJUBLJANA, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The head of Slovenia's largest
fuel retailer Petrol  PETG.LJ , Tomaz Berlocnik, who led the
company since 2011, said he resigned on Thursday, along with two
other top managers of the company.
    "Sadly the management and the supervisory board had
different views regarding development, particularly the strategy
of the company, so we decided to quit at this point in agreement
(with the supervisory board)," Berlocnik told reporters after a
supervisory board meeting. 
    Petrol said Berlocnik will be replaced by Nada Drobne
Popovic, who was the head of the supervisory board of the
company. It gave no further details on the reasons for the
management change.
    The government is the largest shareholder of Petrol, owning
about 32% of the company.
    Earlier on Thursday the Managers' Association of Slovenia,
which named Berlocnik the manager of the year last month due to
his successful leadership of Petrol, called upon the government
to reconsider the rumoured plans to replace Petrol's management.
    "What message do we send to the society if we remove the
team which ensured growth of the company and significantly
increased the added value it makes?" the Association said in a
statement.
    Following the association's statement Prime Minister Marjan
Sarec said on Twitter that the rumoured information that his
Party of Marjan Sarec (LMS) wants to replace the management of
Petrol is not true.
    Petrol is one of the largest Slovenian firms with market
capitalisation of some 736 million euros ($817 million). It
employs about 5,000 people and operates over 500 filling
stations in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and
Kosovo.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N25Q1F9  

($1 = 0.9007 euros)

 (Reporting by Marja Novak
Editing by Chris Reese and Lisa Shumaker)
 ((Marja.Novak@thomsonreuters.com; +386-1-5058805, Reuters
Messaging: marja.novak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))