News roundup - Thursday, 14 March, until 3pm

Slovenia's bond issue raised by EUR 500m

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia extended the issue of the ten-year eurobond RS93 in international capital markets by another EUR 500 million to EUR 2 billion. The issue saw a large demand by investors, surging to EUR 3.1 billion. A third of investors come from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, 13% from France, 12% from Scandinavia, 10% from Central and Eastern Europe, including Slovenia, 9% from the Benelux countries and 23% from other countries.

NKBM group net profit almost doubled last year

MARIBOR - The banking group NKBM, which became part of Hungary's OTP group last year, posted a net profit of EUR 203.8 million last year, which is 92% more than in 2022. The group's total net operating revenue topped EUR 404 million in 2023, which is up almost 28% compared to 2022. Operating profit before tax almost doubled to EUR 206.6 million. The NKBM bank recorded a net profit of EUR 189.3 million, shows the annual report.

Committee endorses changes to laws governing referendums

LJUBLJANA - The Home Affairs Committee endorsed on Wednesday amendments to the laws governing referendums that reflect constitutional changes. Members of all parties bar the opposition Democrats (SDS) expressed support for the amendments, which required the support of two-thirds of MPs present. Among other things, the changes abolish physical forms in the process of collecting 40,000 signatures in support of a request for a referendum.

Slovenia fined EUR 800,000 over electronic communications directive

LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg - The Court of Justice of the EU has slapped Slovenia with a EUR 800,000 fine following a European Commission lawsuit of the country's much delayed transposition of the EU directive on electronic communications networks. While the deadline had been December 2020, Slovenian adopted the new electronic communications act only in September 2022, two months after being taken to court by the European Commission.