Holding Slovenske Elektrarne (HSE) on Wednesday, 7 June 2023, returned to the owner the first EUR 100 million of the total of EUR 492 million of recapitalisation funds, accepted by the decision of Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH) in December 2022. The management of HSE, consisting of chief executive officer Tomaž Štokelj and chief operating officer Uroš Podobnik, has successfully remedied the liquidity issues that plagued the company last year due to a drop in its own production and a steep rise in prices as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. HSE has operated well this year, the production of electricity is uninterrupted and reliable and it has even exceeded the plans.

“HSE management invests a lot of effort in optimising operations and improving processes, and much more attention than before is being paid to managing risks related to electricity production. We estimate that this year’s operations of the HSE Group will be significantly better than last year’s and, if there are no major upheavals, one of the best in the history of the HSE Group,” noted Tomaž Štokelj, the chief executive officer of HSE, adding that: “We are satisfied that we have warranted the trust of the owner, which enabled us with recapitalisation funds to quickly and efficiently solve temporary liquidity issues. The decision to provide us with financial help to bridge the situation in which we found ourselves last year due to external circumstances has proven to be prudent and justified. After all, the HSE Group is the largest producer of electricity in Slovenia and a pillar of the reliable supply of electricity to businesses and households.”

The founder will decide on the exact date of the return of the other EUR 100 million of recapitalisation funds in the third quarter of this year. In addition, during Monday’s session SSH also adopted the decision on the return of an additional EUR 42 million, whereby the exact pace of this refund will be determined by a special decision, taking into account the production and market conditions and other business circumstances that affect the stability of the HSE Group’s operations.

The HSE Group, which thus remains the largest and most reliable producer of electricity in Slovenia, is launching an extensive investment cycle in accordance with the set vision of the spearhead of the country’s green transition. “All our plans are aimed at the development of the HSE Group and investments in renewable energy sources, in fact a comprehensive sustainability-oriented breakthrough in the Slovenian energy sector, while at the same time enabling constant reliability of the production and supply of electricity to end customers,” Tomaž Štokelj, the chief executive officer of HSE, also noted. The HSE Group is developing into a reliable energy supplier with competitive prices and ambitious plans also in the retail segment: we want to develop a broad range of products and solutions that will encourage the active role of customers in the green transition.