He will be temporarily replaced by Blaž Brodnjak, a member of the management board whom Medja had brought into the bank.
Janko Medja had decided not to wait for the owners to remove him at next Wednesday's assembly and has resigned on this own. The bank's supervisory board accepted his proposal of consensual departure.
According to TV Slovenija, the reason for Medja's resignation is dissention with the bank's owner. Upon leaving, the now the former head of the management board emphasized that NLB had achieved all goals from the past three years and a half. There have been ups and downs, he admitted before adding: "I'm leaving the bank in a stabile position, with excellent results and good trends."
"We went through the most difficult period of restructuring, returning to the market and re-gaining the trust of customers. NLB is a truly different bank today – it has achieved a positive result, it's stabile and competitive on the market. As such, it is ready for the future's key project – privatisation," said Medja with pride about the work that had been done in the past three years.
Changes in NLB's boards
The bank will have a temporary three-member management board coordinated by Blaž Brodnjak, already the board's member. The bank has announced that Medja's resignation takes immediate effect. The board of supervisors led by Gorazd Podbevšek assessed the bank to be in a good condition that enables uninterrupted further operation. In his previous position, Brodnjak managed banking services for larger companies, small and private banking. He joined the bank in 2012 as part of Medja's team.
As the representative of the state, the sole owner of NLB, the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SDH) had convened the annual assembly for Wednesday, 10th February. Persistent rumours appeared soon afterward, suggesting a vote of no confidence might be passed to Medja. The departure of three members of the supervisory board was also announced by SDH at the time.
According to unofficial information obtained by TV Slovenija, the departing members include the supervisors' head Gorazd Podbevšek, Miha Košar and Tit A. Erker.
SDH is likely to bring a breath of fresh air into the supervisory board and change the statute to expand the board's membership by two members, creating a team that will manage the bank in preparations for the process of privatisation.
A. Č., Sa. J., G. K., MMC; translated by K. Z.
