From the 20th to the 27th of June, the President of the VZMD – PanSlovenian Shareholders’ Association partook at two of the most significant international meetings – one was of the WFIC – World Federation of Investors’ Corporation in Brussels and the other was of the Euroshareholders in Beirut. In addition, he also participated at the festivities marking the 20th Anniversary of the Republic of Slovenia’s Independence, which was organized by the Slovenian members of the European Parliament.

"...This very severe imbalance between the representation of financial services users’ interests and that of providers has even deepened since the 2008 financial crisis. Nevertheless, the European Commission has not honored its public commitment at all. No funding tender for retail investors’ organizations has been created so far. In addition, EC refused to grant even one euro to the European retail investors’ organization (The European Federation of Investors – EuroInvestors, created in September 2009 on the initiative of Euroshareholders and of FAIDER ), through the already existing yearly EC tender directed to the European consumer organizations. It is important to underline that European Authorities categorize us as “consumer” organizations and that we were advised by EC officials to apply for that specific tender. The EC turned down our 2009 application, and clearly told us that we would never be successful for this yearly tender..."

At the 17^th Shareholder's Meeting of Mercator, which took place on 22^nd of June, all of the resolutions proposed by the Management and Supervisory Board were adopted - all with over 99.9% IN FAVOR of the votes cast. Such an outcome was foreseen, although there were suggestions that voting rights were taken from some of the larger shareholders. In addition, the largest shareholder, Pivovarna Laško, d.d., did not attend nor was represented at the Shareholders' Meeting, since they had just reached an agreement with the banks on selling the majority of shares of Mercator, d.d.

The overall shareholder representation was extremely low with only 23.45% votes. In the framework of the proxy collection, 2.61% of the company's capital was represented. Of the 1,917 collected proxies, VZMD representatives, Andreja Sever and Blaž Strojan, M.Sc., received 768 proxies or 40.06% of the proxies.

On June 21, 2011, the president of the VZMD actively partook at the Executive Board Meeting of the WFIC - World Federation of Investors' Corporation and, in the afternoon, participated at the festivities and activities surrounding the 20^th Anniversary of Slovenia's Independence. The festivities were held at the European Parliament through the organization of its seven Slovenian members with the keynote speaker being the ex-president of the European Commission and the ex-premier of Luxembourg, Mr. Jacques Santer.

 

In context of this organized proxy collection, the VZMD - PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association, through the cooperation of the company Sava, gathered 2,269 proxies, of which the three representatives of the VZMD received 1,329 proxies while Sava's three representatives received 815 proxies.  The organized proxy collection was further joined by MDS, whose six proxy candidates received the remaining 125 proxies. 

The organized proxy collection, which the company Sava implemented through the collaboration with the VZMD - PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association, was beforehand publically announced (Friday, May 20, 2011) by Sava through the electronic informative system of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, SEOnet.  In addition, for the first time, foreign investors and shareholders could also voice their voting rights at the General Assembly through the Eurovote system, which through the support of the European Commission, is implemented by the Euroshareholders in affiliation with the VZMD - PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association.  (Click here for more on the EuroVote system.)

 

The investo.si - Invest to Slovenia program, along with some of the most outstanding Slovenian companies, is presently, actively involved at the extraordinary two-day forum of the international Knowledge Economy Network - KEN, which has their headquarters in Brussels.  Over 200 visitors from fifteen countries, including well-established, reputable economists, experts, opinion leaders, and representatives of various institutes, have showed interest and have partook at this spectacular opportunity.  The KEN Forum 2011 is taking place  in the creative surroundings of the Hotel Habakuk in Maribor today and tomorrow, the 6^th and 7^th of June, and began with yesterday's welcoming of participants, which through the invitation of the president of the KEN, was also attended by the president of the VZMD - Pan-Slovenian Shareholders' Association.

In Paris, on the 24th and the 25th of May the OECD is hosting a Forum to celebrate its 50 years.  On May 23, 2011, the VZMD President, Kristjan Verbič, M.Sc., flew to Paris, where he was invited to partake at the two-day OECD 50^th Anniversary Forum with the slogan, "Better Policies for Better Lives."  At the Forum, Mr. Verbič met with three of the most reputable speakers of the Opening Session of one of the most influential and notable international organizations: the President of the European Council (Herman Van Rompuy), the Secretary-General of the OECD (Angel Gurría), and the President of the Republic of Slovenia (Danilo Türk), the latter of the two can be seen on the photograph with Mr. Verbič after the keynote speech given by President Türk.