KOPER – Dimitrij Zadel will no longer head the Board of directors of Luka Koper, starting November 15.
The decision results from an agreement between President Zadel himself and the Supervisory Board of the company that manages the port of Koper. Together with him, two other members of the board of directors will leave, pending the appointment of his replacement, whose choice has been entrusted to an external agency.
The decision taken at the end of October had already been hypothesized in recent months, as part of the decisions entrusted to politics. Luka Koper, it should be noted, is controlled by the Slovenian State (51.00 %) and the Slovenian Sovereign Wealth Fund (11.13 %) in addition to a small share held by the Municipality of Koper (3.14 %).
“The Supervisory Board estimates that the mentioned members of the Management Board performed their duties well, but due to conceptual differences in the further development strategy the company needs a new management.” This is the official explanation released for the shareholders.
The port of Koper, in continuous expansion, aims at confirming itself as a reference point for the Upper Adriatic Sea in evident competition with the port of Trieste. Luka Koper will probably exceed one million Teu handled at the end of the year, while it is confirmed as one of the top Mediterranean ports for car traffic.
The question mark remains about rail connections, a weak point in the future development of the port. The doubling works of the line towards Divaccia, however, should be able to remedy the situation. In the meantime, Luka Koper has announced a new truck terminal (after expanding the dedicated gates) and the possibility to quickly dispose of sludge obtained from dredging, thanks to the approval of the Maritime Space Plan, adopted after a 2014 EU directive. Late June, however, saw the announcement of the end of work on the south end of Pier I, which was extended by 100 meters.
Zadel, a mechanical engineer, had been appointed in late December 2017 to a five-year term. He had previously held top positions in Trgoavto d.o.o (responsible for commercial vehicle sales) and the OMV oil group: he was director of OMV Slovenija d.o.o accountable for the restructuring and reorganization of OMV subsidiaries in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Italy.