At a correspondence session today, the outgoing government endorsed a decision that all of the EUR 12.6m in distributable profit be paid out to the state as the sole shareholder.

Acting as the shareholders' meeting, the government granted discharge of liability to the company's supervisory board and management for 2017 and reviewed their remunerations.

A release issued by the Government Communication Office said that the consequences of the devastating ice storm in 2014 and an ensuing bark beetle outbreak continued to affect the business last year.

"Within the first two years after the ice storm bark beetles spread mostly in the forests affected by the ice storm, but in 2017 they spread throughout the country."

The release added that due to climate change the pest affected woods at high altitudes where bark beetles had not been present in the past.

The mandatory cutting of affected forests resulted in excess amount of timber and volatile prices, but much of the excess wood was exported to Austria.