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Karl ERJAVEC Minister Za Zunanje Zadeve Republike Slovenije Prešernova Cesta 25 SI-1001 Ljubljana

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Karl ERJAVEC Minister Za Zunanje Zadeve Republike Slovenije Prešernova Cesta 25 SI-1001 Ljubljana EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 25.6.2018 C(2018) 3869 final In the published version of this decision, PUBLIC VERSION some information has been omitted, pursuant to articles 30 and 31 of Council This document is made available for Regulation (EU) 2015/1589 of 13 July 2015 information purposes only. laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, concerning non-disclosure of information covered by professional secrecy. The omissions are shown thus […] Subject: State Aid SA.49214 (2017/N) – Slovenia Restructuring of Semenarna Lubljana Sir, The European Commission (hereinafter: "the Commission") wishes to inform the Republic of Slovenia that, having examined the information supplied by your authorities, it has decided not to raise any objections to the State aid referred to above as it is compatible with the internal market pursuant to Article 107(3)(c) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ("TFEU"). The Commission has based its decision on the following considerations: 1. PROCEDURE (1) On 28 September 2017, the Slovenian authorities formally notified a restructuring aid to Semenarna Lubljana d.o.o. (hereafter "Semenarna"). At the same time, the Slovenian authorities informed the Commission services that the restructuring plan would be submitted at a later state, which occurred on 3 November 2017. Karl ERJAVEC Minister za zunanje zadeve Republike Slovenije Prešernova cesta 25 SI-1001 Ljubljana Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles – Belgique, Europese Commissie, B-1049 Brussel – België Telefon: +32 2 299. 11. 11. (2) The Commission requested additional information from the Slovenian authorities on 23 November 2017. The Slovenian authorities provided an answer to this request on 16 and 18 January 2018. (3) A conference call was held on 3 March 2018; additional information was requested by the Commission from the Slovenian authorites on 13 March 2018. The Slovenian authorities provided an answer to this request on 11 and 26 April 2018. (4) Due to the urgent need to adopt and notify a Decision relating to the State aid at stake, the Slovenian government exceptionally agreed by letter dated 17 May 2018 to waive its rights deriving from Art. 342 TFEU in conjunction with Art. 3 of the EC Regulation 1/1958 and to have the planned decision adopted and notified pursuant to Article 297 of the Treaty in English, instead of Slovenian. (5) The Commission requested on 17 and 22 May 2018 additional information from the Slovenian authorities who provided an answer on 22 and respectively 23 May 2018. 2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE MEASURE/AID 2.1. The beneficiary (6) Semenarna Ljubljana is a company based in Slovenia (Ljubjana), active in the production and sale of products for gardeners (vegetables), and products for farmers (crops), with 235 employees on 31st December 2017. (7) Notably, Semenarna is registered as a company active in the sector of i) wholesale of grain, seeds and animal feeds, ii) retail sale of gardening material, products relating to pet animals and pet food in specialized stores, and iii) production of vegetables and melons, roots and tubers. Semenarna has its own production facility in Celje and the Selection Centre in Ptuj, where seeds are developed, which performs the maintenance selection of landraces and traditional varieties, ecological and vegetation tests and breeding of various types and varieties of vegetables. (8) Semenarna developed different service and product trademarks to communicate with its customers: (i) the core trademark, Semenarna Ljubljana, (ii) three product trademarks (Valentin, Bonami Terminator X, Gardeno) and (iii) two service trademarks (Kalia for garden centres and Rodovita for agricultural stores). (9) In addition to its own trademarks, Semenarna Ljubljana also sells other trademarks through all its sales channels. (10) Semenarna sells its products through four sales channels: (i) retail in both the "Kalia" garden centres and "Rodovita" agricultural stores/centres (the most important channel, in terms of value), (ii) wholesale, (iii) exports and (iv) on-line store, which is a new sales channel introduced in 2015; Semenarna operates two retail chains in Slovenia, namely, (i) Kalia, the retail chain of garden centres, spread over the whole Slovenian territory, and (ii) Rodovita, the chain of agricultural stores targeted to farmers in the region of North-Eastern Slovenia. (11) The market in which Semenarna operates is both domestic and for export. According to the description of the company, Semenarna’s business model is 2 relatively non-comparable with the business models of the other competitors in the market, or is only comparable in certain segments. Namely, Semenarna Ljubljana sells its products through both wholesale and retail channels and has its own chain of retail stores. In the retail segment, it is more similar to merchants, while in the wholesale segment it is similar to distributors and agents, as well as typical wholesalers. (12) In terms of foreign competitors, the most direct competitors of Semenarna are both the large multinational corporates and small companies with business models comparable to Semenarna's one (although the latter do not own retail stores themselves)1(*). The Slovenian authorities identified as the most direct competitors of Semenarna at national level AgroMag, Agrosaat RWA Slovenija, Planta Prelesje, Roko, Semevit, PP Agro, Agroruše, although most of them are smaller than Semenarna or only operate in certain segments covered by Semenarna. (13) Semenarna belongs to the Dezèlna Banka Slovenije d.d. (herereafter DBS), a privately-owned cooperative bank. According to DBS' 2016 and 2017 annual reports, DBS had four shareholders on qualified stakes (over 5%): (i) Kapitalska zadruga, z. b. o., Ljubljana (47.532%) (ii) KD Kapital d. o. o. (8.859%) (iii) KD Group d. d. (6.012%) and (iv) Banca Popolare di Cividale S.C.p.A. (5.362%, hereafter, the "DBS Group"). (14) DBS has several subsidiaries: DBS Leasing d.o.o., DBS Nepremicnine d.o.o., Semenarna Ljubljana d.o.o. and DBS Adria d.o.o. Causes of Semenarna's difficulties (15) Semenarna's financial difficulties are mainly related to its high indebtedness and lack of cost optimisation in a context of decrease of sale prices in all its sale channels due to pressure from competitors on price. Semerna must therefore allocate a large share of its available cash flows to the repayment of financial liabilities. This prevented the company over the recent years to invest in equipment, to adapt to the evolution of customers' needs as well as caused some liquidity problems. (16) A compulsory settlement performed in 2013 allowed a write-off of 50% of Semenarna's ordinary debt (write-off amounting to EUR 9.3 million), mostly towards suppliers and banks. This severely damaged Semenarna's reputation as a reliable company. (17) Semenarna also lost export revenues relating to the bankruptcy of its subsidiaries, mainly in Croatia and Serbia. 1 Such as Merkur, BauMax, Bauhaus, OBI, Mercator (merchant competitors), Vilmorin & Cie SA, Graines Voltz, Suba Seeds Company S.r.l., Monsanto Agricultura Espana S.A., DLF Seeds A/S. (*) Parts of this text have been hidden so as not to divulge confidential information; those parts are enclosed in square brackets [ ]. 3 (18) As a consequence, Semenarna suffered a significant drop in its revenues (turnover decreasing from EUR 34 million in 2012 to EUR 25 million in 2013). (19) Besides, one-off high re-evaluation expenses due to impairment of real estate based on the appraisal of the authorised property appraiser and the write-offs of assets and liabilities of subsidiaries in 2012 significantly contributed to the significant loss of Semenarna in 2012 (EUR -13 million). (20) Semenarna was recapitalised in January 2014 by its shareholder, DBS, who converted receivables in the amount of EUR 4.8 million in 2014 into capital of Semenarna. Semenarna also entered in 2015 into a master restructuring agreement with the banks NLB, DUTB, Poštna banka Slovenije d.d. and DBS that foresaw a rescheduling of the loan accompanied by the sale of part of Semenarna's real estate, the proceeds of which being used for early repayment of those loans. (21) Over the same period, Semenarna conducted an in-depth restructuring of its operations through notably reductions in its cost of services, and foremost its labour costs (from EUR 5.9 million in 2012 to EUR 4.9 million in 2016). (22) Thanks to those measures, Semenarna's EBITDA increased from EUR -6.7 million in 2012 (-19.8% of EBITDA margin) and EUR 0.2 million in 2013 (0.6% of EBITDA margin) to EUR 1.4 million in 2016 (4.6% of EBITDA margin). Semenarna also managed to reduce its indebtedness from EUR 35 million in 2012 to EUR 23 million in 2016. This however still represents 17 times its EBITDA (to be compared with a 4.4x ratio in average in 2016 for similar foreign companies). As a consequence, Semenarna needs additional finance to implement a business restructuring allowing to increase its operative cash flows and thus reduce its financial debt. (23) With the view to achieve a long-term sustainable indebtedness, Semenarna has agreed on a financial restructuring with its main creditor banks NLB, NKBM and DUTB: the receivables of those financial creditors exceed [80%-100%] of Semenarna’s total financial liabilities as at 31st December 2016. Semenarna concluded with those banks an agreement regarding its financial restructuring dated 1st February 2017 (hereafter, the "2017 MRA"). The following key measures of financial restructuring of Semenarna were agreed with the aim of rescuing Semenarna: i. recapitalisation of Semenarna by means of a non-cash contribution through a conversion of DBS’s (secured and non-secured) receivable into capital amounting to EUR 2.1 million; ii. granting of a short-term bridge loan to Semenarna by DBS amounting to EUR [2.0;4.0] million for the purpose of allowing Semenarna to serve the debts arising from the 2013 compulsory settlement mentioned in recital (16) at the beginning of 2017; iii.
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