This week saw the sudden resignation of Rudolf Skobe, the president of Telekom Slovenije, after over six and a half years in the post.
Although the move took many by surprise, it followed a period of speculation about his future, due in part to the disclosures of a forensic audit report for the period 2007-2015.
In a statement earlier this month the Slovenian incumbent made reference to media coverage of the audit. It also said that, “all the documentation related to the business deals that the forensic audit report has reviewed have been handed over to the competent law enforcement authorities”. More importantly, it stressed that the audit did not incriminate any of the current members of its management board or any other current employees.
In Skobe’s resignation statement, he said he felt he no longer had the complete trust of all key stakeholders in Telekom Slovenije, which is majority (62.54%) owned by the Republic of Slovenia.
Change is certainly in the air for the telco, with recent reports indicating it may be preparing to sell the public/private broadcaster Planet TV, jointly owned with Antenna Group, and the news portal Siol.
The company also suffered a financial hit last September when it agreed to pay its competitor T-2 a reported €50 million to settle a long-running legal dispute. More recently, it completed the sale of a 100% stake in the Bosnian operator Blicnet in January.
On the plus side, Telekom Slovenije was able to post a net profit of €33.3 million last year, up from €9 million in 2017. It also invested €133.9 million in 2018, with a significant amount being spent on its fibre network, reaching over 282,000 homes at year’s end.
Furthermore, in a pay-TV market dominated by IPTV, it claimed over half (50.3%) of subscribers opting for IPTV services.
Despite some recent developments, Telekom Slovenije will remain one of the main players in Slovenia’s electronic communications marketplace for the foreseeable future.
