Yesterday, the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users (BETTER FINANCE), bringing together 43 national organizations and 5 million investors accross EU, published a VIDEO INVITATION: https://youtu.be/u5Fs3H5WLDQ.

With it the Managing Director Guillaume Prache is inviting partners and the international business and investor community to participate at the International Investor Conference, on 13 September in the eminent Grand Hotel Toplice, Bled, which is organized together with VZMD - the PanSlovenian Shareholders' and Investors' Association.

It is with great sadness that we received the news of the passing of our

longtime friend, Roger Ganser,

the inspiring president of the World Federation of Investors (WFI),

Association of Investors USA (BetterInvesting), member of the SEC and

NYSE Board Advisory Council.

Roger has always impressed us as well as enriched our lives with his

presence, wisdom, and remarkable cheerfulness and vitality –

from our first meetings in Sao Paolo, Belo Horizonte, and Rio in Brazil thirteen years ago,

and since then all around Europe, on both friendly visits to Slovenia, all the way to

our earnest and friendly meetings in New York – which were unfortunately out last.

We offer our heartfelt condolences to Roger's loved ones and

hope that the memory of his unique and unforgettable personality, touching resolve

and charming energy will comfort them in this time of grief.

Dear Roger, you will be missed!

Kristjan Verbič

PanSlovenian Shareholders' and Investors' Association

On Saturday, the commemoration of the 105^th anniversary of the construction of the Russian chapel was held below the Vršič pass. Numerous high representatives of diplomacy, economy, politics and culture have traditionally participated in the commemoration. This time the Russian delegation was lead by the Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Mr. Konstantin Kosachev, while the highest representatives from Slovenia, the president of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, the Minister of Economic Development and Technology, Zdravko Počivalšek and many members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia also attended.

VIDEO VZMD.tv on the high profile commemoration five years ago: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U8MHyUPB24 .

Last Tuesday, the 19th Annual European Financial Services Conference (EUFSConf21) took place; it is considered one of the major events in Brussels that usually attracts over 400 international participants, particularly representatives of banks and the financial industry, decision-makers and policy-makers who discuss each year’s most important issues affecting the European and global financial markets.

The Conference hosted by BARCLYS, GENERALI in KREAB took place as a virtual event, and more than 20 speakers shared their views and opinions, including Chairman of Generali Group, Gabriele Galateri di Genola, Chief Executive Officer at Barclays Europe, Francesco Ceccato, and Chief Executive Officer at London Stock Exchange Group, David Schwimmer, while the honorary speaker was the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia Mr. Andrej Šircelj. At the invitation of the organizers, the event was also attended by the VZMD President Mr. Kristjan Verbič, who actively participated and – similarly as at the recent Convention of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges – posed a number of questions to the minister Šircelj and other attendees.

Among other things, Mr. Verbič asked what kind of agenda has Slovenia prepared for its Presidency with respect to achieving the ambition of a joint European capital market, and why is Slovenia constantly (VIDEO) additionally restricting and limiting fiduciary accounts for securities (VIDEO) – which are of vital importance for cross-border (and European) securities trading – pointing out how this is in direct violation of the EU acquis, which is why VZMD had to initiate the proceedings at the European Commission. The aforementioned also makes it more difficult to carry out the program called “Share SUPPORT”, which was established by VZMD to make the shareholding and access to the securities market easier for minority shareholders and individual investors, which is one of EU’s priorities. The European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users also spoke up in favor of a smooth functioning, protection and strengthening of the “Share SUPPORT” (BETTER FINANCE).

At four sessions, the participants discussed the opportunities and challenges of re-establishing business operations in a post-pandemic era that brought many new solutions and improvements. Other topics included the increasingly popular sustainable and long-term investing, central bank digital currencies – the future of the digital euro, and Europe and the emerging new global partnerships that will mark the future. These are certainly topical issues that VZMD wants to address, at least to some degree, at the upcoming international investor conference in September in Slovenia, organized once more by VZMD together with BETTER FINANCE (VIDEO). Considering that the meeting will be attended by the World Federation of Investors (WFI) as well as many other international participants who will visit Slovenia during its presidency of the Council of the EU, VZMD expects an excellent discussion – also because many different stakeholders from this field will finally be able to meet in person.

As a longstanding member of EUROSHAREHOLDERS, BETTER FINANCE and WFI, VZMD has demonstrated its excellent organization of such high meetings and events in the past. Among other events, they organized international annual meetings in Ljubljana already in 2008 (VIDEO) and again in 2012 (VIDEO), where – as part of the wider event Investors` Week – close to 170 representatives and members of three of the largest world associations of individual investors met and adopted THE LJUBLJANA DECLARATION (VIDEO). Additionally, VZMD has been performing other activities for the members of its business-investment programs: investo.si and investo.international; in the past 8 years they carried out more than 60 international tours (VIDEO), where they ensured active participation and presentations at more than 150 international business conferences and investor meetings, on 5 continents. This event will be again covered by the team of VZMD.tv, which has gathered a lot of experience in the past years with picturesque reports on events abroad (VIDEO).

VZMD and BETTER FINANCE would like to extend the invitation to anyone interested to participate and enrich the program and are striving to carry out these events with direct participation if there is a good epidemiological forecast. Should this not be possible, the meetings will be virtual. More information on the events and participation opportunities will be given by VZMD in the coming weeks.

In September, an international conference of investors and a meeting of the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users is going to take place in Ljubljana (BETTER FINANCE), which will be co-organized by the PanSlovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association (VZMD) as one of the most active members. The World Federation of Investors (WFI) and other partner organizations, as well as numerous international experts, decision-makers and institution representatives, are invited to participate in the meeting, which is going to take place during the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council. Aside from the meeting of the Legal Committee of BETTER FINANCE, the highlight of the event will certainly be the International conference on measures for long-term participation of investors in EU capital markets and improvements to corporate governance.

The Convention of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) – an influential international organization connecting 35 exchanges from 30 European countries – took place under the title “Public Capital Markets Powering Europe`s Recovery”. Although this year the Convention took place online (VIDEO), it was attended by the highest decision makers, representatives from the fields of economy, finance and politics as well as many other distinguished guests and invited delegates. In addition to hearing Mairead McGuinness, the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union – and in light of the upcomingSlovenian presidency of the Council of the EU – the participants were also addressed by the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia mag. Andrej Šircelj, who was one of keynote speakers (VIDEO).

The VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, was appointed as a member of the highest collective working group of the important and influential international organization with more than 50 years of tradition at the meeting of the Executive board of the World Federation of Investors (WFI). Mr. Verbič pointed out that his appointment to the Executive board represents a significant recognition and an additional strengthening of the existing cooperation between WFI and VZMD of more than 13-years. VZMD is a longtime visible and active member of WFI and has – among other things – organised their annual meetings in Ljubljana already in 2008 (VIDEO) and again in 2012 (VIDEO), which were even more high-profile, since within the context of the event Investors` Week representatives and members of three of the largest individual investors associations met (in addition to WFI, the European Federation of Investors and the Euroshareholders) and adopted the Ljubljana Declaration (VIDEO), which merged both European associations.

Immediately after the general meeting of ZAVAROVALNICA TRIGLAV, d.d. (main Slovenian insurance listed company) was convened, the PanSlovenian Shareholders' and Investors' Association (VZMD) sent the company a counter proposal for distribution of higher dividends – as VZMD announced recently. VZMD’s proposal thus provides for a distribution of €79,573,018.00 €, i.e. a dividend in the gross amount of €3.50 per share, while the management and the supervisory board proposed a dividend in the gross amount of €1.70 per share, meaning that the company would allocate €38,649,751.60 of a total of €89,624,175.26 € of balance sheet profit at the end of 2020. The Association believes that – since the dividends were not paid out last year – it would be appropriate and imperative for the company to allocate the majority of its balance sheet profit for the distribution of dividends to the shareholders. According to VZMD, a higher dividend would strengthen the trust of the existing and potential investors in the company's shares – in Slovenia as well as abroad – and it would consequently have a positive impact on greater liquidity and the growth of the share price on a stock exchange. The companies listed at the Ljubljana Stock Exchange that acted in this direction (e.g. Petrol, d.d. (VIDEO) and Krka, d.d.) have achieved a significant growth on the stock exchange in this period – also due to this fact.

This year again, the VZMD (Pan-Slovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association) is closely following the situation and influence of the "corona crisis" on the public limited companies, from which Slovenian shareholders will receive quite different rewards for their capital investments or rather their "company loyalty" – despite the joyous fact that most of them performed quite well. Based on the published proposals of the managements and supervisory boards regarding the distribution of dividends, it is becoming clear that many companies do not wish to give their shareholders the appropriate dividends that would reflect the good results from one and two years ago, the positive forecast for the future and the fact that many shareholders have unjustifiably been deprived last year already, as well as the budget of the Republic of Slovenia.

The VZMD is extremely concerned over the report that the Securities Market Agency (ATVP), Insurance Supervision Agency (AZN) and the Bank of Slovenia (BS) again issued »recommendations« and measures for non-distribution of profits in 2021 as well. Due to these measures, many companies have not been paying dividends and sharing profits with its owners despite many of them having reaped record profits. Instead of it, the ever growing bureaucracy is heading for a disaster on the capital market, shareholders and the pension insurance fund as well as the revenues from taxes, which will further deter investors from Slovenia and its increasingly crony or rather bureaucratic - planning anti-economy. The VZMD is again making a plea to all regulators who have been planning drastic general measures in the comfort of their offices to, by any means, show any expert analyses (?!) which would at least partly justify such decisions and measures.

On Friday the news broke that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia (CC) had issued a decision posing a series of questions in the procedure for the constitutional review of the Act on Judicial Protection Procedure for Former Holders of Eligible Liabilities of Banks (ZPSVIKOB) initiated by the Bank of Slovenia (BS) thus causing a further departure from the solution which the unjustly canceled/expropriated investors have been expecting for the last 7 years.