Ljubljana, 04 December (STA) - The Administrative Court has reportedly upheld the rejection of Croatian conglomerate Adris's attempts to raise its stake in Sava Re, Slovenia's no. 2 insurance group, to just under the takeover threshold of 33%.
According to a report by the news portal Siol.net, the court adopted decisions in recent weeks in two out of four Adris's administrative disputes with the Slovenian Agency for Insurance Supervision.
It fully backed the watchdog's decisions in both cases, indicating that Adris, which had been rejected by the supervisor three times already, was actually looking for ways to bypass the regulator.
Adris, which holds roughly 19% in Sava Re together with its affiliated insurer Croatia Osiguranje, built its case on the claim that the insurance supervision agency had been stalling its decision and had adopted it after the deadline.
Siol says that the protracted process had in fact been caused by Adris's appeals before the Administrative Court.
While Adris was counting on the delay to automatically result in an approval, the court reportedly argued that the decisions had been adopted in time and that even in cases where deadlines are missed, the usual implication is not a positive but a negative decision.
Adris started buying the shares of Sava Re, whose largest owner is the Slovenian state, in 2014.
The first rejection by the Slovenian Agency for Insurance Supervision came in the autumn of 2016, the main reasons reportedly being the group's exposure to Croatian state bonds and to the Agrokor conglomerate. Adris has the approval to raise its stake to up to 20%.