Koper - The supervisory board of Luka Koper appointed on Friday Boštjan Napast the president of the management board of the state-owned port operator for a five-year term. Napast was until recently the head of the board of the gas distributor Geoplin.

Chief supervisor Franci Matoz told the press after the session that the appointment had been made on proposal of a staffing commission and that the third member of the management board way yet to be appointed.

The appointment of the CEO comes after the supervisors of Slovenia's sole maritime port appointed in mid-November one new member of the management board for a five-year term, unanimously confirming Robert Rožac.

Rožac, who previously served as state secretary at the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, and hails from Koper, entered the four-member board that also features Vojko Rotar as representative of the employees.

While Rotar is to stay on the board, Luka Koper supervisors are still looking for one more member to complete the overhaul of the board after chairman Dimitrij Zadel and members Metod Podkrižnik and Irma Gubanec recently resigned.

Matoz noted that Napast had been appointed with eight votes in favour, with only one supervisor representing capital abstaining.

Supervisors will continue to look for the third member of the management board, who will be in change of finance, with Matoz hoping that a suitable candidate could be found by the end of the year, but they would not rush things.

Matoz noted about the contract with the new CEO that there was a provision for all members of the board appointed by the current supervisors that they could be dismissed without stating the reason. In this case they would get severance pay of three monthly wages.

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

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.