Forum Archive Index - December 2002

[crt jakhel <crt@dergan.net>]

In reply to tennyson@caverock.net.nz (20.12.02 00:04):

> Ah, so the power of the ring worked ;-)!  And you thought it was just
> a story.

yes, hopefully i will not be bound into darkness :)

> What industry branches do you mostly have in Slovenia?
> What industry branches do you not have?

First off, here is the latest monthly bulletin of the ljubljana stock
exchange, describing events and numbers, from which you can get some idea
of the scale of things. Also, you will notice industrial sector indices,
providing a hint as to which are the most heavily represented activities -
by capitalization.

http://www.ljse.si/StrAng/Trading/Statist/mesecni/mes2002/nov%2002%20ang.pdf

Note that the sector indices are mostly there for cosmetic rather than
practical purposes since there is really not a great variety of companies
listed on the LJSE. The main overall index SBI 20 comprises almost the
entirety of the Tier-1 listed companies (the "official" listing).

Apart from that there is Tier-2, the "open market", where some 100+
generally smaller companies are traded.

You might want to visit the www.ljse.si site as there is quite some
material available in English.

We tend to have two major players and a slew of other relatively
unimportant ones.

The traditional couples are:

- pharmaceuticals: Lek (recent takeover by Novartis) and Krka
- oil & gas: Petrol and Istrabenz (25% held by OMV Austria)
- mobile comms: Mobitel (fully owned by the state Telekom) and Simobil
(majority owned by Mobilkom Austria)
- food: Droga and Kolinska
- beverages: Union and Lasko (currently fighting with Interbrew over
control of Union)
- retailing: Mercator and Zivila (the fight is almost over - Mercator is
the clear winner)
- banking: Nova Ljubljanska banka (NLB; 1/3 held by KBC, majority by the
state) and NKBM (state owned, being privatized now)
- main newspapers: Delo and Dnevnik

There is but one Telekom; one car factory (Renault/Revoz); one tobacco
company (Tobacna/Reemtsma);

Not all of these companies are listed. In fact, there are many companies
which are dominant players in their fields but are not listed.

Listing on the LJSE has, so far, been mostly a function of which companies
have been offered to the public (vs. just the employees) in the process of
mass voucher privatization. There have been virtually no new issues thus
far in the history of the LJSE. Companies mostly use debt as a source of
funds and have failed, so far, to capitalize on capital side of the easy
money trend started in 2001.

There is a tendency for companies to be or become mostly
manager-controlled. Whereas this might to some extent be a natural process
considering the size of Slovenian companies, it is also due to the
historical legacy: shareholders were created ad hoc to provide owners to
existing state-held companies and not vice versa, ie. companies coming to
life because of investors.

Also, there is a certain negative attitude towards individual wealth,
culminating in occasional public witch-hunts, and a love-hate attitude
towards Big Government - here also history plays a part although these
feelings are, I believe, in no way unique to Slovenia.

I hope this gives you a simple overview of the state of things. If
anything is unclear or if you require further info, please reply.

Regards,
crt

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