Next week the Slovene business delegation will visit the Republic of Kazakhstan. The visit will be organized by the Public agency SPIRIT Slovenia, The public agency Kazakh Invest, and the Kazakh-Slovene Business Club. Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan, will see members of the Slovene business delegation visit numerous companies and institutions, and participate at the Slovene-Kazakh business forum and B2B talks. At the invitation of the organizers, the event will also be attended by the PanSlovenian Investors’ & Shareholders’ Association (VZMD) President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič. In addition to the scheduled program, Mr. Verbič will participate in numerous other meetings with people whom he had met and developed a collaboration with upon his visit to Kazakhstan in 2013. That year Mr. Verbič, as a member of the delegation accompanying the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Karl Erjavec, actively participated at the business conferences in the capital city Astana (VIDEO by RTV Slovenia), and at the Almaty business, cultural, and scientific center, which were attended by representatives of more than 230 Kazakh and 28 Slovene companies.

The meeting of the Council of the International Congress of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ICIE) opened on Saturday in Thessaloniki, Greece with introductory business and social events. Mr. Kristjan Verbič, the PanSlovenian Investors’ & Shareholders’ Association (VZMD) President, participated at the meeting after receiving a personal invitation form the organizers of the event. This time too, Mr. Verbič successfully presented the activities and opportunities offered by the VZMD international business-investor programs: Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (investo.international).

With regard to the shareholders who have been squeezed out of the TEKSTINA, d.d., company, this week the PanSlovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association (VZMD) has started paying the additional cash compensation, received for shareholders who are included in the shareholders agreement or the "Share SUPPORT" scheme at the VZMD (VIDEO). In fact, after lengthy and complex negotiations a settlement was reached before the Mediation Committee in March, which was upheld in April by the District Court in Nova Gorica. Among others, this settlement binds the main shareholder SVILA IN, d.o.o., to pay the shareholders an additional amount of € 14.20 per share (in addition to the € 3.40 per share, which was the amount paid to them in 2017). 

On Wednesday and Thursday last week, the PanSlovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association (VZMD) President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, attended the international conference organized by the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) “ALFI London Cocktail & Conference” − after successfully participating at a three-day international conference “The Eurofi High Level Seminar 2018” in Sofia, Bulgaria, which saw over 800 participants and more than 130 lectures by the most prominent representatives of EU institutions, regulatory and supervisor authorities, and financial industry.

Last week, Sofia was home to the three-day prominent international conference “The Eurofi High Level Seminar 2018” organized by the international organization Eurofi in association with the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU. At the invitation of the organizer, the conference was also attended by the PanSlovenian Investors’ & Shareholders’ Association (VZMD) President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, primarily in order to exhibit activities and opportunities as part of the VZMD international business-investor programs: Invest to Slovenia – investo.si and International Investors' Network – investo.international.

Alongside the "High-Level Conference: Financing Sustainable Growth" held by the European Commission on the 22th of March, the European Federation of Investors (Better Finance) President, Ms. Jella Benner-Heinacher, and Better Finance Managing Director, Mr. Guillaume Prache, met with the European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Mr. Karmenu Vella.

The working visit from the Vice-President of the European Commission (EC), responsible for jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness, Mr. Jyrki Katainen, was kicked off yesterday with a joint session of the EU Affairs and Economy Committees of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia. Mr. Kristjan Verbič, President of the PanSlovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association (VZMD), participated at the session as the only representative of the public. He has already met with Vice-President Katainen in Brussels, and he took this opportunity to share a few words with him. Mr. Katainen visited Slovenia as part of the European semester, the EU's annual cycle of budgetary, economic and reform processes coordination between the member states. In addition to the session at the National Assembly, the European semester will include talks with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, a working lunch with the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia and a reception with the President of the Republic of Slovenia.

After Tuesday's work meeting of the members of the Slovene business delegation with the Minister of Economic Development and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Zdravko Počivalšek, and the reception with the Slovene Prime Minister, Mr. Miro Cerar, a "Business forum" was held in Skopje yesterday, organized by the Economic Chamber of Macedonia (ECM) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (CCIS). The PanSlovenian Investors’ and Shareholders’ Association (VZMD) President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, participated in the high-level meeting mostly to present the activities and opportunities offered by the international business-investor programs of the VZMD: Invest to Slovenia – investo.si and International Investors' Network – investo.international. 

In Brussels, Belgium, at the headquarters of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE), a conference on investor education "Investor Education in a Digital World" was organized last Friday by the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users (BETTER FINANCE), in which the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, who is a member of the executive board of this influential European federation, also actively participated. In the morning, Mr. Verbič introduced the participants from 22 European countries to the VZMD's "Share SUPPORT" scheme (English VIDEO), which received support from the European federation since it was established in September 2016. With this presentation the "Share SUPPORT" again received great interest which was also shown for such ownership arrangement (and shared sales) regarding securities in other EU countries. At the same time, a concern was expressed regarding the renewed (VIDEO) attempts at amending the legislation - with the intent of abolishing the only alternative to (too) expensive services of financial intermediaries - and subsequent eradication of small shareholders in Slovenia, in spite of exceptional demonstrated success, when the shareholders of many companies were able to sell their securities at all, often at a several times higher price than offered.

On Monday, the Slovene business delegation arrived to Pristina, accompanying the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Karl Erjavec, on his official visit, at the invitation of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo, Mr. Behgjet Isa Pacolli. The visit was organized jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the public agency SPIRIT Slovenia, the Slovenian Business Club in Pristina (EAC), and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (CCIS). In addition to the meeting of the joint commission for economic cooperation between Slovenia and Kosovo, Monday and Tuesday saw a number of events and activities aimed at fostering the economic cooperation between the two countries. The individual presentation programs were followed by a reception at the residence of the Slovene ambassador in Pristina, while Tuesday was dedicated to the resounding Kosovo-Slovenia Economic Forum.

In the procedure for the review of the constitutionality, initiated by brokerage firm ALTA INVEST, d.d. (in collaboration with ILIRIKA d.d., GBD BPD d.d., and NLB d.d.), the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia decided to repeal the Book Entry Securities Act (ZNVP-1) in the part limiting the expenses for trading account management for natural persons to a maximum of 0.5% of the average share price on the account. This is yet another serious and possibly crippling blow to over 100,000 minority shareholders in the Republic of Slovenia, mostly those, who had to transfer their shares from free-of-charge registry accounts to payable trading accounts due to the amendment of ZNVP-1. It was also thanks to the PanSlovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association (VZMD) protest and appeal that in September 2015 members of the Parliament included in the Act at least the limitation on the amounts charged by financial intermediaries, which the latter have now abolished through the Constitutional Court!

Last week, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, President of the PanSlovenian Investors’ & Shareholders’ Association (VZMD), sent an official letter to the Speakers of the National Assembly and the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia, leaders of deputy groups, and presidents of parliamentary parties. The letter included his well-supported objections to the proposal for the change of Paragraph 10 of Article 296 of the amendment to the Financial Instruments Market Act (ZTFI-1) as proposed by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. The experts from VZMD firmly believe that the suggested change, which came only a year after the last aggravation of the situation, is evidently a new attempt to suspend the successful program called "Share SUPPORT" (VIDEO) and a step towards implementing additional unreasonable limitations to the lawyer's trust account of securities used for executing shared sales. These sales proved to be an extremely efficient part of the "Share SUPPORT" (VIDEO). In December 2017 alone, resounding shared sales were executed for shares, which up until that moment were considered worthless, yet brought to 1,100 shareholders collectively more than EUR 260,000 from sales. The realized values of such shares always significantly exceeded (sometimes even by six times) the previous market values attained by "professional" financial intermediaries.