Slovenia

As the 17 July 2022 deadline for Slovenia to implement the Directive (EU) 2019/1023 on Restructuring and Insolvency is fast approaching, it is still not entirely clear exactly when and how its provisions will be transposed into Slovenian law, Mondaq reported. A draft amendment of the main Slovenian insolvency law, the Financial Operations, Insolvency Proceedings, and Compulsory Dissolution Act (the "Insolvency Act"), which (among several other topics) provides for transposition, has been in circulation among various state authorities and the interested public for over a year.

The bankruptcy procedure of Slovenia’s former national carrier, Adria Airways, will be concluded within the next three years, according to its administrator, Janez Pustatičnik, Ex-Yu Aviation News reported. Adria Airways’ creditors have reported 151 million euros in claims against the company. However, Mr. Pustatičnik has approved only 87.7 million euros in claims. Among them, the largest claim, at 6.6 million euros, has been made by Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines. Jet owner AeroCentury has four million euros in claims, while the Rolls Royce Corporation has 2.2 million.

Slovenia’s largest food retailer Mercator refinanced a debt of its Serbian unit Mercator-S to the value of 90 million euros ($99.8 million) with Serbian bank AIK, Mercator said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. It did not give details of the deal but said the conditions of the refinancing were “much more favourable” than those of the previous syndicated loan which was taken in 2014 and would expire in March. It added the refinancing will improve liqudity of the Serbian unit over the next five years and enable further development of Mercator in Serbia.

Ljubljana airport should be able to replace most flights lost in the collapse of Slovenia’s Adria Airways within a year and a half, its manager and owner Fraport said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Fraport is in talks with airlines to replace Adria flights, which accounted for 11 of 29 regular routes serving Ljubljana, Zmago Skobir, business director of Fraport Slovenia, told a news conference. “There is demand for these destinations and we have received the first signals that they will be replaced,” Skobir said.

Slovenian airline Adria Airways has filed for bankruptcy and canceled all flights, it said in a statement on Monday, after financial problems forced it to ground most of its planes over the last week, Reuters reported. “Bankruptcy proceedings were initiated by the management of the company because of the company’s insolvency,” Adria, which is owned by German investment firm 4K Invest, said. Adria is the latest in a long line of small European airlines to run into financial trouble amid industry overcapacity, cut-throat competition and high fuel prices.

Slovenia’s Adria Airways has cancelled almost all of its flights for Tuesday and Wednesday, potentially affecting around 3,700 passengers, because it has been unable to access cash to continue flying, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. “The company is at this point intensively searching for solutions in cooperation with a potential investor. The goal of everyone involved is to make Adria Airways fly again,” it said in a statement.

The European Commission is suing Slovenia for seizing European Central Bank documents in a raid at its own central bank three years ago as investigators looked into its role in bank bailouts, Bloomberg News reported. The Commission said Thursday in a statement that it’s “decided to refer Slovenia to the Court of Justice of the EU for the violation of the inviolability of the archives of the ECB.” Attempts in 2016, 2017 and 2018 to clarify the facts and circumstances were unsuccessful, it said.