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EU: Commission opens in-depth investigation into Slovenia’s NLB bank

By  |  January 28, 2018

On Friday, January 26, the European Commission said it had opened an in-depth investigation into new commitments made by Slovenia regarding the restructuring of its top lender, Nova Ljubljanska Banka.

The government of Slovenia, which fully owns the bank, pledged to sell 75% of NLB by the end of 2017, but put the sale plan on hold last June.

It said the expected price, which would value the whole bank at a minimum of €1.1 billion (US$1.37 billion), was too low.

The government, which injected US$1.6 billion into NLB in 2013 to prevent it from collapsing under a large amount of bad loans, notified the Commission of a set of new commitments in December.

Its proposals consist of an extension of the deadline for the sale until 2019 as well as the appointment of an independent trustee to oversee shareholders rights in the meantime.

“At this stage, the Commission has doubts whether the new Slovenian proposal can be considered equivalent to Slovenia’s original commitment,” the Commission, which oversees competition policy in the European Union, said.

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