The appointment, made by BAMC non-executive directors, is effective as of Monday, BAMC said, adding that Pirc, currently the sole executive director, would also be in charge of asset management and corporate matters until the other two executive director positions are filled, expectedly in first half of May.

The three non-executive directors hailed Pirc's work this far and a high level of trust established between him and them on the board of directors. They expressed their belief in BAMC's quality leadership and operations in the future.

BAMC said that Pirc's appointment was part of measures taken by the new board aimed at stabilising the company, ensuring quality cooperation between executive and non-executive directors, and maximising the proceeds from the sale of assets while ensuring the company's transparent cooperation in the future.

Pirc embarked on his professional career working in executive positions in retailer Mercator. In April 2014, he became the chairman the Slovenian Restitution Fund and after its transformation into Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH) continued as the holding's chairman.

After failing to get appointed on the full-fledged SSH management board in October 2015, he got a job as one of the directors at the international consulting firm A.T. Kearney.

He joined BAMC's team in August 2017, becoming the chief financial officer before being appointed acting CEO in January. Pirc also serves as the chief supervisor of 2TDK, the state-run company managing the project of the new Koper-Divača rail track.

The CEO position became available after Imre Balogh resigned in mid-December last year, citing personal reasons, although there had been indications he no longer enjoyed the overhauled board's trust.

Pirc is the only of the three executive directors left at BAMC after Andrej Prebil and Jože Jaklin left their posts in the past weeks.

Before Balogh's departure, the government dismissed Miha Juhart as chairman of the board of directors, replacing him with Tomaž Besek and appointing Marko Tišma as another non-executive director.

The replacements came in the wake of an internal audit which found issues with the sale of land to Swiss Lonstroff for an elastomer plant in Logatec, and several other allegations.

Only last week the government adopted new guidelines under which BAMC will have to consult it before taking strategic decisions, such as sale of property designated in national documents as strategically important.