Ljubljana - Gender balance targets were being met at the end of April in 30% of the 56 state-owned and listed companies monitored by the Directors' Association and Deloitte Slovenia as part of the 40/33/2026 initiative. On average, the companies had slightly more than 23% of women on their management boards and 26% of women among supervisors.

A report published this week by the two organisations, focusing on 13 companies, shows that four of them have made progress when it comes to the targeted minimum of 40% women on supervisory boards and 33% together on supervisory and management boards.

NLB bank had already achieved the targets and has seen further improvement, while the other three - the state-owned development bank SID Banka, state-owned power utility HSE and postal operator Pošta Slovenije - are still short of the goals despite progress.

No changes were recorded at eight companies, but three among them are already where they were meant to be at the end of 2026, namely retailer and property business Nama, logistics company Intereuropa and gas distributor Geoplin.

The remaining five are short of the targets and have seen no progress, namely electricity distributor Elektro Maribor, pharma company Krka, insurer Sava Re, the SIJ steel group and railways operator Slovenske Železnice.

Meanwhile, Gen Energija, a state-owned power company, has regressed and is no longer meeting the targets set in the initiative.

According to the report, as of 30 April, there were 31 women and 102 men in the management bodies of the 56 companies covered by the initiative, meaning 23.3% women's representation, and 77 women and 219 men in the supervisory bodies, i.e. 26% female representation.

At the end of 2021, 18 out of 56 companies, or 32%, had achieved the gender representation target, six more than a year earlier.