Danes je v Laškem, na stopnicah Kulturnega centra, potekala prelomna skupščina Pivovarne Laško, ene najpomembnejših gospodarskih družb v Republiki Sloveniji. -
Delničarji so namreč skupščino izpeljali na stopnicah Kulturnega centra v Laškem.
Po tem, ko je, kot vse kaže iz poznejših dogodkov in izjav, vodstvo družbe želelo skupščino preložiti oz. preklicati z nepodpisanim skromnim obvestilom, so čakajoči delničarji na pobudo VZMD sklenili, da razloga za neizvedbo skupščine ni. Ker so bila vrata Kulturnega centra zaklenjena, je skupščina potekala na stopnicah pred vhodom.
Na skupščini je bilo prisotnega 16,36 % kapitala oz. 38,48 % z glasovalnimi pravicami, VZMD je preko organiziranega zbiranja pooblastil zastopal 140 malih delničarjev ter tretjega največjega delničarja Pivovarne Skagen Kon - Tiki Verdipapirfond (5,65 %).
V nadaljevanju sledi zgovorno poročilo VZMD TV in poročilo v angleškem jeziku, saj je dogajanje zanimivo tudi za tujce, ki so svoje investicije zaupali Pivovarni Laško.
Pivovarna Laško, d.d. Assembly “cancelled”, shareholders undaunted
Celje, May 29’th, 2009: The supervisors and the management board of Pivovarna Laško decided to call off Friday’s shareholders’ meeting of the beverage group - hour and a half after the officially announced beginning! - after finding out that the company’s biggest owner has been stripped of its voting rights by Competition Protection Office. The small shareholders, organized by Kristjan Verbič, MSc., the President of PanSlovenian Shareholders’ Association, countered by holding an meeting.
Pivovarna Laško, d.d. said in a press release that the Competition Protection Office, which is investigating ownership consolidation in the company, had informed Infond Holding, d.d. only earlier in the day that it is not allowed to vote on some of the crucial items on the agenda of the meeting. With Infond Holding, controlled by the brewery’s boss Boško Šrot, holding a 57% stake in the company, the management said it had to cancel the meeting and prevent a potential damage to shareholders.
Pivovarna Laško added that the competition watchdog, which has been looking into the situation for more than a year, had allowed all shareholders to participate in last-year’s Assembly, which had an identical agenda.
The company’s small shareholders, who among others included the KAD fund, a joint stock company whose sole founder and shareholder is the Republic of Slovenia (7,2 %), Triglav - the insurance Company (0,84%) and PanSlovenian Shareholders’ Association - authorized by 140 shareholders (0,99%) and the Skagen Funds - Norwegian management company (5,65%), begged to differ, deciding to stage the shareholders’ meeting anyway and to do so outdoors.
The Friday’s meeting rightly turned into a showdown between the shareholders controlled by Šrot and the enraged small shareholders.
Several contentious items had been put on the agenda of the Assembly, among them the proposal for a 50 % capital increase with exclusion of all small shareholders in the coming five years, which would help Šrot further tighten his grip on the company at the expense of small shareholders.
The small shareholders who insisted in front of the Laško Cultural centre to stage their “alternative” meeting rejected the proposal. They also voted against a discharge for the management and supervisors for Pivovarna Laško, who oversaw an accumulated loss of EUR 1.6 million in 2008.
Representing 20% of the company’s capital, they on the other hand backed the proposal by KAD fund for an audit of the group’s operations in the past five years. They moreover appointed Boštjan Marolt and Bojan-Ludvik Šef, representatives of the shareholders, as two new members of the supervisory board for a four-year term.