Ljubljana, 09 April (STA) - The return on capital investments managed by Slovenia Sovereign Holding (SSH) rose considerably last year, reaching 10.2%, a record high since the state asset custodian was established in 2014, preliminary data show. The state and SSH also received EUR 175.5 million in dividends, SSH said after Monday's supervisory board session.
The report, coming in the wake of a Finance Ministry draft update of the 2015 state investment management strategy, puts the total value of the state's capital investments managed by SSH at the end of last year at EUR 12.2 billion, about a billion euros more than at the end of 2022.
The return on equity of the investments of the state and SSH was 4.7% in 2015, rising to 6.9% in 2019, before falling back to 4.3% in 2020 due to the Covid-19 crisis. After an intermediate rise in 2021, it slid to just 2.8% in 2022 due to the energy crisis.
In line with the Finance Ministry's draft new state investment management strategy, a sale of postal company Pošta Slovenije and insurer Zavarovalnica Triglav is no longer off limits. The two companies have been relegated from strategic to important status, meaning the state's shareholding is allowed to decrease to 25% plus one share or vote.
The status of Telekom Slovenije, slated for potential sale in 2013 and given "portfolio" status, has on the other hand been upgraded to important, meaning it seen as a company vital for broader economic development and serving as a key link in supply chains or in the economy's internationalisation. As strategic the document classifies companies managing key infrastructure or natural monopolies.
Of the 104 companies listed in the 2015 strategy, 29 have been sold for what the draft strategy says was EUR 1.6 billion in total. The data shows that despite these sales the book value of the state's shareholdings fell only by EUR 400 million after 2015 to EUR 11.2 billion at the end of 2022, with a low point of EUR 9.9 billion in 2020.
From 2015 to 2022, the state and SSH also received EUR 1.7 billion in dividends, mostly from companies in the financial sector.
