LJUBLJANA | Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:31am EST
LJUBLJANA Dec 31 (Reuters) - Slovenia's largest bank Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) warned it will probably need a fresh capital injection in 2013 after shareholders on Saturday failed to approve an immediate 375 million euro ($495.8 million) capital hike.
NLB is one of three troubled local banks whose weak balance sheet, burdened by bad loans, has given rise to speculation that Slovenia might need an international bailout next year.
The lender said on Monday a capital injection would most probably be needed next year to cover losses from rising bad loans and to meet tougher European capital requirements.
It said, however, it would end 2012 with a capital ratio that would be high enough to ensure its "stability and security".
The unlisted bank gave no indication of the size of the capital boost it was likely to need or its expected timing.
Earlier this year, NLB received a total of 383 million euros of capital from the state, which controls about 85 percent of the bank after Belgian banking and insurance group KBC on Friday sold its 22 percent stake to Slovenia for 2.8 million euros.
Slovenian banks, mostly state-owned, are nursing some 6.7 billion euros of bad loans, which equals 19 percent of the country's GDP.
The government will form a new firm in the first quarter of 2013 that will take over bad loans of state-owned banks in exchange for state-guaranteed bonds in order to ease the credit crunch and enable bank privatisation.
Slovenia, which joined the euro zone in 2007, was badly hit by the global crisis due to its dependency on overseas markets and is struggling with recession amid lower export demand and a fall in domestic spending caused in part by budget cuts.
The government expects the economy to shrink by 1.4 percent next year after a contraction of 2 percent in 2012. ($1 = 0.7564 euros) (Reporting by Marja Novak; Editing by Zoran Radosavljevic and David Holmes)
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