In a posting on the website of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, Intereuropa said it had been notified by the NLB bank the consortium decided to halt the sale procedure conducted by Lazard and Centrobank.

The banks initially announced their intention to sell their stakes in Intereuropa in January 2014, issuing a call for the expression of interest for the acquisition of 72.13% of the shares in December that year.

The consortium includes the state-owned SID development bank (18%) and NLB (17.4%), Gorenjska banka (11.2%), Austrian Raiffeisen banka (10.4%), French-owned SKB (8.2%) and Italian-owned Banka Koper (2.7%).

The banks obtained the shares through the conversion of EUR 18.4m worth of claims into equity. The state-owned NKBM bank converted EUR 1.2m, but transferred the stake to the Bank Asset Management Company, which has apparently joined the consortium.

Intereuropa has only attracted one binding bid, submitted by the Malta-based investment firm Tuffieh Funds. However, the gap between what is prepared to offer and the banks' demands appears to be too wide.

Intereuropa projects sales revenue to the tune of EUR 137.1m, EBITDA of EUR 13.1m and EUR 6.3m in operating profit for this year.