Ht seems like a great sport - yet it may have harmfulconsequences Until 2008 it seemed that Slovenia didnt have anytycoons: you know, those superrich individualswho acquired their wealth in record-breakingtime, typically through shady deals related to the priva-tization process. Yet this spring suddenly the word be-came a part ofeveryday politics. A few months before theparliamentary elections this fall, a fight against these so-called tycoons suddenly became a top
political priority,The main target of the tycoon bashers is Boško Šrot,the manager of the Pivovarna Laško brewery - yet notthe only. Rumors have been circulating for some time thatŠrot is taking Pivovarna Laško over through a number ofcompanies officially owned by other individuals, yet con-trolled by Laškos CEO. These rumors were confirmedthis May when it came into the open that Šrot indeedowns 56 percent ofthe brewery through a chain ofrelatedcompanies.Under Šrots management Pivovarna Laško has concen-trated less on brevving beer and more on acqiiiring assets inother companies, First they took on its larger competitor,Pivovarna Union from Ljubljana - a controversial move,since both breweries together control over 90 percent ofSlovenian beer market. Still, the governments Competi-tion Protection Office gave its official blessing to the take-over, daiming against all the evidence that Pivovarna Laškodidn't obtain a monopoly on the market. After that PLtook over Delo, Slovenias largest newspaper. The companyalso controls the third largest daily, Večer, and directly orthrough related companies owns almost 60 percent of thelargest retailer, Mercator. The total value of Šrots personalwealth is estimated at 700 million euros.The second most notorious tycoon is Igor Bavčar,CEO of the large, diversified Istrabenz group and ownerof slightly less than one quarter of the company. In 1991Bavčar was Slovenias internal affairs minister. Togetherwith present prime minister Janez Janša, then the minis-ter of defense, Bavčar led operations against the Yugoslavarmy during Slovenias ten daywar ofsecession. NowadaysBavčar is supposedly closer to the opposition then to thegovernment, currently ruled by the Slovenian Demo-crats (SDS) under Janšas leadership. Still, many guess thatBavčar didnt make his moves without the political supportofhis former brother in arms.Before 2007 Šrot was also quite chummy with thepresent government. It was through the help ofthe formersecretary ofthe state at the Ministry for the Economy, Andrijana Starina Kosem, that PL gained shares ofboth Mer-cator and Delo.And Starina Kosem was at that time closely cooperat-ing with her boss, Prime Minister Janez Janša. The cozyrelationship betvveen Šrot and Janša ended in 2007, how-ever: Starina Kosem resigned as state secretary, becamea president of the supervisory board of Delo, and openlyaccused Janša ofpressuring the newspaper to publish sto-ries favorable to his regime.Last fall Boško Šrots charismatic brother Bojan Šrot,the mayor of Slovenias third largest town of Celje, be-came the new president of SLS party. The party is a rela-tivelyweak member ofthe ruling coalition. The campaignagainst tycoons personalized by Boško Šrot also came inhandy as a move to steal momentum from SLS under itsnew leader.EATTHERICHIt came handy - yet its not the main reason. Publicsentiment in Slovenia is to a large degree inclined to-wards egalitarianism. Pensioners are an important groupof voters, and they can't easily forget socialist ideals andthe socialist value system. To an average Slovenian copingwith exploding food prices, its simply unfathomable thatsomebody could get rich in a short time vvithout breakingthe law. To the government coalition dealing with risingfood prices, interest rates, inflation and a global vvorsen-ing of economic conditions, a fight against the tycoonscame as a perfect means to divert attention from realproblems.It looks like a no-win game. The more fuss the govern-ment makes the more the public will expect some concreteaction. And a fuss appears to be the only thing the govern-ment can make: it was through inefficient controls by gov-ernmental bodies and also through an imperfect legal sys-tems with too many loopholes that these so-called tycoonsreceived their assets. They may be operating on the brinkof the law, yet apart from technical issues of small conse-quence nothing has yet been proved against anyone whoparticipated in these ostensibly shady privatization deals.To take one spectacular proof of this, in February theCEOs ofthe three largest Slovenian construction compa-nies were arrested in a spectacular action. The three wereaccused of corruption. Tens of police cars and vans were ~~r<
Medij: Slovenian Business Report
Avtorji: Di Roca Pietro
Teme: Istrabenz
Rubrika / Oddaja: In Brief
Datum: 29. 07. 2008
Stran: 10