By: V.K.
It is obvious that the conditions for the operation of the economy under the current government are excellent, otherwise tycoons such as Tomaž Subotič, also known as Anton Rop’s wallet, and the like would not dare to carry out attempts at new takeovers at any cost. They already love each other so much.
Storkom Štore, its director Anton Franulič and businessman Tomaž Subotič have announced their intention to take over Železar Štore company, which is one of the major owners of the Štore Steel ironworks. The Agency for the Protection of Competition, the management and employees of the target companies have already been notified of the takeover intention, and the takeover bid will be published within 30 days at the latest.
Tomaž Subotič is considered the wallet of Anton Rop, the former president of the failed LDS party. Rop was also Subotič’s wedding witness.
As follows from the takeover intention published in the newspaper Finance, the authorised company Železar Štore is the issuer of 969,400 shares. Thus both Starkom – one of its major owners is Franulič – and Subotič already own shares in the target company.
This is a new takeover attempt, after in February 2019 Starkom, Subotič and the former long-time director of Štore Steel Marjan Mačkošek announced a takeover bid for the authorised company Železar Štore. As part of the offer, they acquired 4.63 percent of shares and increased their ownership in the target company by 64.43 percent. They offered 4.82 euros per share at the time.
The authorised company Železar Štore is one of the major owners of Štore Steel, owning more than 20 percent of the shares. The largest owner of Štore Steel is Unior with a share of almost 30%, while Kovintrade and Dinos each own more than 15% of the shares.
According to experts, the Subotič family is an exemplary example of Slovenian udba-mafia evolution. The grandfather is said to have been among the communist liquidators after World War II, the father is said to have collaborated with Udba and laundered money to the Red Barons, and the son then ran an investment fund.
Rob’s good colleague Subotič never hid his success and wealth, he has amassed considerable wealth in recent decades. However, he has always concealed his origin that is strongly intertwined with the former undemocratic regime.
Already in 2015, he was one of the candidates for the supervisory board of the Slovenian State Holding (SDH), guarding over around 12 billion state assets. He founded his company Intertrade Prague in 1991, and then became a co-owner of the Slovenian subsidiary of the Moravia Steel Group. The latter is one of the 100 largest European companies. By connecting with Slovene politicians of the transitional left, he climbed even higher, and at the same time there are hints that his son is turning money into profit for him and his well-known political friends with a hedge fund he runs abroad.