Slovenia to restart privatisation process before new government takes office

Telekom Slovenije, D.d

28/07/2014 21:28

LJUBLJANA, July 28 (Reuters) - Slovenia's outgoing 
government said on Monday that it would restart its 
privatisation programme before the new government takes office, 
after suspending it ahead of the national election earlier this 
month. 
    Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek's centre-left government 
halted the programme to allow the incoming government to 
reconsider the privatisation process. Analysts, however, said 
the suspension could deter investors or bring down the prices of 
the companies on sale. 
    Selling off state-owned companies is seen as a key component 
of Slovenia's ability to stabilise its finances and its economy 
after the government had to spend 3 billion euros last year to 
rescue troubled banks and narrowly avoided having to seek an 
international bailout.  
    Bratusek's government has earmarked 15 companies for 
privatisation, and already sold two of them. Others on the list 
include Slovenia's second-largest bank Nova KBM, airport 
Aerodrom Ljubljana  ARPO.LJ  and telecom firm Telekom  TLSG.LJ . 
  
    A recently formed centre-left party SMC, led by Miro Cerar, 
won the election but has yet to complete talks with coalition 
partners on forming the new cabinet.  
    The outgoing cabinet's statement on Monday did not elaborate 
on the reversal of its earlier decision. 
    "At the proposal of the Slovenian State Holding (SDH) the 
government decided to change its decision from July 3 that SDH 
would neither complete the ongoing nor begin the new 
privatisation procedures before the new government is formed," 
the government said. 
    SDH is in charge of running the sale of state assets. 
    Slovenia, which joined the European Union in 2004 and the 
euro zone in 2007, has for years been reluctant to sell  
major companies, citing national interests. Its economy is still 
largely state run. 
    Following the election results Cerar suggested he might 
revisit the former cabinet's plans and that he hoped to have 
their privatisation programme in place this year. 
 
 (Reporting by Almir Demirovic, writing by Igor Ilic in Zagreb; 
Editing by Susan Fenton) 
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Keywords: SLOVENIA PRIVATISATION