Slovenian Sovereign Holding announced on Tuesday it had launched a proposed placement of up to 1,999,999 ordinary NLB shares, representing 10% of the bank's existing share capital minus one share, "by way of an accelerated bookbuild process to certain institutional investors in the form of shares and global depositary receipts representing shares".

The state needs to reduce its stake to 25% plus one share under commitments given to the European Commission as it approved a EUR 1.56 billion state aid for the bank in late 2013.

NLB shares have been trading on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange since November 2018, while global depositary receipts representing ordinary NLB shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The state still holds a 35% stake in the bank at the moment, which makes it the biggest single owner, while the rest is distributed among small domestic investors and various foreign institutional investors.

According to data as of the end of 2018, the biggest single owners apart from the state are US financial firm Brandes Investment Partners and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with just over 6% each.

The NLB group generated a net profit of EUR 203.6 million last year, 10% less than the year before, while the core bank's net profit fell by 12.5% to EUR 165.3 million. The shareholders' meeting has recently approved a dividend payout of EUR 142.7 million at EUR 7.13 gross per share.