The publishing of the prospectus will mark the official start of the sale of NLB shares through an initial public offering (IPO) process. However, due to the current unfavorable market conditions, it's quite possible for the price range not to be set so high. The price range is, reportedly, set below the accounting value of an NLB share, which was 75,40 euros at the end of June. If the price does turn out to be not as satisfactory to the seller, it will definitely represent a good investment opportunity to the small and institutional investors. NLB forecasts to have an almost 12 percent return on capital, and dividend payouts amounting to around 70 percent of the profit made by the entire NLB Group, by the year 2023.
No lack of interest for the shares
Unofficially, almost all of Slovenia's institutional investors are showing an interest for the purchase of NLB shares. But what about the small, uninformed investors, for which the state has reserved 10 percent of the selling share? Economist Mojmir Mrak says: "Let's allow ourselves to be surprised." Urška Jereb reported for Radio Slovenija that at this moment Slovenian households have more than 17 billion euros on their bank accounts in the form of savings deposits.

Slovenia made a commitment to the European Commission to sell at least half of the NLB bank by the end of this year. The sales procedure was initially launched last year, when the Supervisory Board of the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SDH) decided to shift the responsibility of making a final decision on the price range to the government. The government then decided to stop the whole procedure due to risks stemming from unresolved issues connected to Croatian foreign currency deposits. This time, a green light for the price range was given by the SDH Supervisory Board.