A Slovenian watchdog has scrapped the voting rights of state-owned companies in Slovenia's largest fuel retailer Petrol until they reduce their joint stake in the firm or announce its takeover.

The securities' market watchdog ATVP said on its website that 10 state-owned companies and investment funds jointly owned about 29% of Petrol, which is above the Slovenian takeover threshold of 25%.

Under Slovene law, anyone who buys more than 25% of a company has to announce its takeover or reduce the stake to below 25%.
ATVP said in January it had started similar procedures against state owners in eight other companies, among them pharmaceutical firm Krka, and decisions on other cases are still pending.

ATVP told Reuters earlier in March that it was pushing for an increase in the takeover threshold to 33% as that would increase investors' interest in Slovenian companies.