Ljubljana - The head of Slovenia's huge Istrabenz holding, Igor Bavcar, has stepped down under the pressure of mounting losses, local media said Tuesday.

During Bavcar's seven-year reign, Istrabenz bought into 78 Slovenian companies, including the key businesses such as the largest retail chain, Mercator, food processor Droga Kolinska, the oil company Petrol and top tourism projects.

The company was crucial in Slovenia's model of transformation, which saw the former Communist Yugoslav republic race to European Union membership between 1991 and 2004 without giving up control over its own economy.

While in 2007 the publicly-listed Istrabenz posted a profit of more than 100 million euros (140 million dollars), last year it reported losses of over 800 million euros. The situation has grown worse so far this year.

Bavcar, 53, was replaced by Bogdan Topic as the chief executive at Istrabenz. Slovenian economists worry that a collapse of the holding would jeopardize thousands of jobs in the Alpine-Adriatic republic with 2 million inhabitants. (dpa)