According to a press release from the Velenje city, Bobinac announced the plans at Thursday's reception hosted by Mayor Bojan Kontič, which was also attended by Chinese Ambassador Ye Hao and Lan Lin, Gorenje vice-president and executive vice-president of Hisense Group.
Bobinac dismissed concerns about potential layoffs at Gorenje that had been raised in the local community, announcing that not only would the bulk of production stay in Velenje, but that there were plans for expansion.
According to him, Hisense is planning to build a new plant in Velenje which will initially put out a million TV sets a year. He said that the new operation would create several hundred extra jobs.
Bobinac, the long-serving CEO of Gorenje who since this month also serves as vice-president of global marketing at Hisense International, said that 30 Hisense experts had joined processes at Gorenje.
Lan said that the integration process between Gorenje and Hisense had been running fast and smoothly, assuring the local officials that the Velenje company and employees were in good hands, and pledging that the new owners would make further improvements at the company, which still had untapped potential.
Kontič noted that Velenje, which is marking its 60th anniversary next year, developed with Gorenje, so the local authorities would be keeping a close watch on the business players of whom they expected successful operations and social responsibility.
Hisense Luxembourg Home Appliance Holding has acquired more than 95% of Gorenje's stock. The Chinese company paid 12 euro per Gorenje share in the takeover bid running until the end of June. The price per share put the total value of Gorenje at EUR 293m.
A few days ago Hisense appointed a new supervisory board as well as extended the management of Gorenje to include six new members from Hisense Group.
The Chinese investor, one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer electronics and household appliances, was selected by the Gorenje management as a strategic partner to support the company's development.
The takeover has already been cleared by the European Commission, while the Slovenian competition watchdog is expected to issue its decision on the takeover by the autumn.
