The European Commission began reviewing Austrian XXXLutz’s purchase of 140 Asko furniture stores in Slovakia, Czechia and Germany from Germany’s Porta. The two companies agreed on the deal back in early 2025. The EC notes that the groups often compete for customers in the same areas and hold a particularly strong position in Germany. XXXLutz already runs five XXXLutz stores and 16 Möbelix outlets in Slovakia. (dennikN.sk)

Anti-trust authority PMÚ fined the Slovak Association for Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pumps €140,000 for cartel conduct. The association set minimum recommended installation and servicing prices for its members in 2022-25. The authority cut the original fine by 30% after the association admitted breaching competition rules. The decision is final. (antimon.gov.sk, zive.sk)

German electronics firm Semikron Danfoss, which employs 600 in Vrbové, plans to build a new production hall there. It will relocate production from Germany, where it will cut 90 jobs, German media report. The transfer is scheduled to begin in 1Q 2027. (sita.sk)

The Transport Ministry plans to allow carmaker Tesla to use its Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised) driver-assistance system in the coming days, Minister Jozef Ráž said. Slovakia will be the 9th EU country to approve it. The system turns, crosses intersections and changes lanes on its own, but the driver must still watch the traffic. (pravda.sk)

France's Veolia completed the purchase of seven Slovak firms from fellow French group Engie after winning approval from anti-trust authority PMÚ. The new owner took over Engie Services, Račianska teplárenská, Prvá ružinovská spoločnosť, Energy Distribution, Termming, TH Moldava and LMT. The new merged entity employs 1,370 people and its companies had €650m sales last year. Veolia also bought Slovakia's largest biomethane plant, BPS Horovce, from investment group Reticulum. Th

State agency NASES signed a €90.4m contract with GlobalTel (the Ondriš brothers) to supply and operate software for the slovensko.sk portal. The G2G communication module costs €46.6m, the IAM login module €20.2m and 4-year service support €23.6m. Most annexes are classified and no public procurement apparently took place, with the portal’s current supplier winning the contract directly. Activists and the state’s value-for-money unit ÚHP protested against the project for sever

Tatravagónka (Alexej Beljajev, heirs of Michal Lazar and Budamar) signed a 10-year contract in May this year with its Indian subsidiary Jupiter Tatravagónka Railwheel Factory for the supply of 50,000 wheelsets annually. It will thus buy half the annual output of the new plant near the city of Khordha, where it is investing €330m instead of the originally planned €270m. Italian steelmaker Lucchini and state agency Simest will invest €28m in the plant in return for a 25% stake.

Hlohovec-based drugmaker Saneca Pharmaceuticals (Oskar Világi and Ján Sabol) plans a €44m investment in ampoule production. It aims to reach capacity of 40m ampoules a year in 2027 and up to 120m later. The line is expected to create 58 jobs at launch and as many as 177 by the end of 2030. Saneca now employs 900 people. The government approved a €17.5m tax break for the company early this year. Saneca lifted net profit 22% to €12.1m last year after revenue grew 15% to €108.8m

Slovakia has seven billionaires this year, Forbes magazine found. It changed its valuation of the assets held by J&T owners compared with last year. The richest Slovaks: Jozef Tkáč €3.57bn Ivan Jakabovič €3.30bn Patrik Tkáč €2.92bn Jaroslav Haščák €2.30bn Tomáš Chrenek €2.10bn Ivan Chrenko €1.81bn Peter Korbačka €1.20bn (forbes.sk)

Eight of Slovakia's 10 largest shared service centers cut staff last year, by a combined 1,415 people. The biggest cuts came at the centers of IBM (-12% to 2,326), AT&T (-14% to 1,963), Deutsche Telekom SS (-11% to 2,147) and Dell (-9% to 2,270). IBM employed 4,639 people in 2020 and AT&T 3,235. Only Henkel (+2% to 2,050) and Mondelez (+1% to 440) added staff. (sme.sk)