* Weak demand for appliance maker’s Warsaw listing -sources

* Gorenje says will proceed with listing on Warsaw bourse,
plans debut by year-end

* Slovenia’s shaky economy a factor in putting off investors

By Pawel Bernat

WARSAW, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Slovenian household appliance
maker Gorenje has failed to line up buyers for all
shares on offer in a planned listing in Warsaw, three sources
close to the issue said on Thursday, with Slovenia’s debt crisis
deterring investors.

The listing could be a barometer of how much investor
appetite there will be for other Slovenian stocks at a time when
the government in Ljubljana is preparing to privatise more than
a dozen businesses to raise badly-needed cash.

Gorenje, in which Japan’s Panasonic Corp is a
minority shareholder, is planning an offering on the Warsaw
stock exchange, central Europe’s biggest bourse. It is already
listed in Slovenia.

Book-building, or collecting expressions of interest from
investors in buying shares, was completed on Wednesday. The
sources told Reuters that buyers had not been found for all the
shares in the issue.

The company wanted to raise 45 million euros through a
public offering of 10.44 million new shares which – if sold –
would constitute 36 percent of the increased capital.

“The books have not been fully covered,” one of the sources
said.

In a statement sent to Reuters on Thursday, the firm said it
was “proceeding with the activities for listing Gorenje shares
on the Warsaw stock exchange by the end of 2013”. It said it
would publish the offering results on Dec. 18, as planned.

According to the offer’s prospectus, the planned date of the
stock’s market debut in Warsaw is Dec. 30.

Two other sources confirmed the book in Warsaw had not been
covered. They pointed to the company’s debt and the troubled
Slovenian economy as the reasons.

“The company has over 300 million euros of debt and high
debt ratios. The market was not convinced its restructuring
programme will be successful,” said a second source.

“Slovenia as a country also has its problems… And other
Slovenian companies on the Warsaw bourse do not have a good
track record. That certainly did not help in the placement of
the offer,” said the second source.

Slovenia is struggling to avoid having to follow Cyprus,
Spain, Ireland, Greece Portugal and Spain into seeking an
international bailout to keep its economy afloat.

It announced on Thursday that its banks would need 4.8
billion euros in extra capital to plug holes in its balance
sheet. It said it could find the money without seeking outside
help.

Companies short-listed for sale by the Slovenian state
include Slovenia’s largest telecoms operator, Telekom Slovenia,
its second-biggest bank, Nova KBM, paint producer Helios,
national airline Adria Airways and Ljubljana airport.

All of them are all wholly or majority-owned by the state.
Slovenia is hopeing to attract interest from Deutsche Telekom
, Telenor and other groups in the sale of the
Telekom stake.

The book-runner for the Gorenje public offering, Polish
brokerage BZ WBK, declined to comment.
($1 = 0.7251 euros)

(Reporting by Pawel Bernat; Editing by Christian Lowe and
Anthony Barker)