New Owners Taking Over at Večer Newspaper
Having acquired the company from the industry peer Delo through the takeover vehicle Dober Večer, the new majority owners are expected to endorse a shift to a single-tier management and appoint a managing board.
They propose for the incumbent supervisors to be dismissed and to replace them with Hakl and Todorović plus Miha Klančar and Aleksander Bratina.
One post on the board is reserved for the staff, who are expected to appoint their representative once changes to the publisher's articles of association become effective.
With the appointment of a new board, the terms of editor-in-chief Katja Šeruga and editorial board will also end but they will continue to serve as acting editors until their successors are appointed.
Večer staff has expressed concern about changes at the helm of the publisher over planned layoffs and lack of information about the company's future strategy.
The procedure in which Delo sold 79.24% stake in rival publisher was completed in early October as Delo obtained EUR 1m in purchase money from Dober Večer.
Delo had to offload the stake at the demand of the market regulator. The remaining minority shareholders are Slovenia Sovereign Holding (10%), newsstand operator Delo Prodaja (6.9%) and small shareholders.
According to data released by the management on the eve of the shareholders' meeting, Večer generated EUR 10.1m in revenue and EUR 10.3m in expenditure in January-October.
Despite the shortfall of EUR 200,000, the loss that is ascribed to the launch of a new investment cycle in the first quarter had been halved by October and by the end of the year the company is to break even.
Citing several new projects such as Sunday edition of the daily Večer and systemic measures, the management said the company was passing into new ownership free of debt.
The number of fully employed staff was reduced by 8% through attrition in the past two years to 155.