Koper - The supervisory board of the state-owned port operator Luka Koper appointed on Friday only one new member of the management board for a five-year term, unanimously confirming Robert Rožac, while failing to appointing one additional member of the board and its chairman.

Rožac, who currently serves as state secretary at the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, and hails from Koper, enters the four-member board that also features Vojko Rotar as representatives of the employees.

According to the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija, he previously worked at Luka Koper, where he was in charge of investments and maintenance for several years. He is reportedly supported by employees.

While Rotar is to stay on the board, the supervisors of the operator of Slovenia's sole maritime port are looking for replacements to chairman Dimitrij Zadel and board members Metod Podkrižnik and Irma Gubanec, who recently resigned.

Franci Matoz, the chief supervisor of Luka Koper, said after the session that a decision had been made to give the staffing commission until 19 November to conduct interviews with other candidates for the management board.

The session of the commission on this topic is expected to continue on 24 November, Matoz said, noting that the agency looking for candidates had informed them that there were another 35 names to look at.

Zadel, Podkrižnik and Gubanec resigned on 22 October upon agreement with the supervisory board, and are to serve until 15 November. Matoz said that Rožac would start his term on 16 November.

He added that with Rožac's appointment, Luka Koper would have a two-member management board, and that handover would be possible because Rotar stayed on. "The supervisory board believed that it is necessary to appoint at least one member today."

Matoz noted that the supervisory did not want to assume stand-in roles in the management board, instead "opting for the candidate ... who is very good and who will work well as board member. He is from the home environment and knows Luka Koper well."

After the board resignation, the chief supervisory said that while it had performed well, a new team was needed for the company's strategic development. "We believe that Luka Koper needs faster development and a bigger breakthrough," he said.

Zadel, who was named Luka Koper chairman in December 2017, said that the management board had walked a path full of challenges and had made some breakthroughs. "But things are also changing on the market, so there are quite come challenges yet to come."

The group Luka Koper generated EUR 114.7 million in revenue and a net profit of EUR 15.4 million in the first six months. The group ended 2020 with EUR 209.9 million in revenue and EUR 32 million in net profit.

The newspaper Delo recently noted that this was the eighth replacement of the management at Luka Koper in the last 16 years.