The extraordinary general meeting was proposed in mid-November by the Dutch company Home Products Europe, which holds a 5% stake in Gorenje and whose authorised representative Philip Alexander Sluiter is a former member of the Gorenje board.

The initiative was soon backed by the shareholders Raiffeisenbank Austria, Splitska banka and Unicredit Bank Hungary.

Under the proposal, chief supervisor Marko Voljč and board member Uroš Slavinec would be replaced with Sluiter and Robert Ličen.

The Dutch company has been calling for strengthening the board with "supervisors who have top knowledge and experience in the household appliances industry".

But Home Products will need the support of at least three quarters of the shareholders present to get their proposal through.

The state-run fund KAD, which is the biggest single shareholder in Gorenje with a 16% stake, announced yesterday it would not endorse the proposal.

The KAD supervisory board added that it expected a "stable management board for the next period" would be appointed at the next regular shareholders' meeting scheduled for May.

The business newspaper Finance reported unofficially last November that the Dutch shareholder was bothered by alleged close friendly ties between the management and the supervisors, seven of which represent shareholders.

The supervisors wrote in response that it was "normal" after so many years that "the relationship between chairman Franjo Bobinac and supervisory board members grew stronger".

Bobinac said in December that the meeting was not necessary because the terms of the supervisors expired in a few months anyway.

He also said that Gorenje had been performing worse than planned in 2017, which put its end-year profit at risk. He attributed this to higher prices of material and components.

The group made EUR 4.6m in net profit in the first nine months of last year, which is up 12% compared to the same period in 2016. Sales revenue rose by 4.8% to EUR 944m.

The group is also seeking a new strategic partner. According to the newspaper Delo, it is eyeing Chinese group Midea.