At the recent general meeting of TALUM B, d.d., the management responded extremely worryingly to the reasonable questions and constructive proposals of the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, who therefore immediately addressed the written questions to the President of the Management Board, Marko Drobnič, Management Board members Daniel Lačen and Zlatko Čuš, as well as the President of the Supervisory Board, Jurij Klančnik (the management of TALUM, d.d., as the only investment of the authorized company TALUM B. The Slovene company TALUM is a modern production company and globally one of the most efficient producers of primary aluminum and aluminum alloys. The company is one of the largest exporters in Slovenia and the largest consumer of electrical energy in the country.
As part of the civil society "Share SUPPORT", VZMD represents 4.23% of all shares, i.e. 79 minority shareholders of TALUM B, who want either an appropriate yield or to sell the shares which do not yield dividends. Namely, the authorized company with 524 (or 603) shareholders has not been paying out dividends in quite some time, and the transactions with its share (on the SI ENTER market) are extremely rare, which shows in the price and inability to sell.
Considering the above, Mr. Verbič addressed several relevant questions to the management board at this year's general meeting, as well as offered several constructive proposals, especially regarding the actions the company could take to receive dividends from its main and only investment in the shares of TALUM, d.d., and pay them out to its shareholders. He specifically highlighted the fact that TALUM B - as one of the four shareholders of TALUM (beside the state-owned companies ELES, d.o.o., the systems operator of Slovenia's electric power transmission network, Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SDH), d.d., and Kapitalska družba (KAD), d.d.) - should have taken initiative and presented their own proposals or at least posed questions to the management board, particularly the crucial ones regarding the manner and conditions for the purchase of electrical energy, related contracts and arrangements, etc.
The questions visibly upset the General Manager, Teodor Dečman, who offered excuses that he had only recently been appointed and that he hadn't yet attended a general meeting of TALUM d.d. The Supervisory Board member Matevž Mohorko answered the explicit question that the Supervisory Board has not opened questions either regarding the purchase of electrical energy as a key factor for the possibility of paying out dividends of TALUM B, whose supervisor they are. Additionally, he stated that in the future, he also does not see the point of such questions, which of course poses serious questions about the role and responsibility of the members of the Supervisory Board and the entire management board of TALUM B.
VZMD therefore expect thorough explanations as to why TALUM is facing such tough business conditions, why it has not paid out dividends to its shareholders and what are the reasons for the situation that are preventing the pay out of the dividends. Considering the public announcements about shutting down part of the production due to the high costs of electrical energy, VZMD also requested explanations as to how TALUM is buying electrical energy, at what prices and from whom, whether they are still buying it directly from the producers, whether they are buying it based on long-term or short-term contracts, and to what extent. They also requested an explanation as to how the company responded to the tougher business conditions and whether shutting down the production will cause increased lay-offs.
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