The paper says Izet Rastoder, the head of the Derbi banana empire, acquired the claims to Grep at an unknown discount, after previously acquiring around 30% of all claims to the developer from a number of commercial banks.

The Bank Asset Management Company (BAMC), the bad bank, confirmed concluding a sales contract for the claims in question, but refused to provide details.

Completion of the transaction requires several conditions to be met, the BAMC explained, again without providing details. "We can't provide more details of the contract in line with the deal with the buyer."

Finance said it was unable to get in touch with Rastoder.

Grep is the bankrupt private partner in the private-public partnership formed to develop the Stožice complex, a cluster of sports facilities and a planned shopping centre.

While the sports facilities were built and opened in 2010, the commercial part of the complex was never completed as private investors withdrew from the project. Grep eventually became insolvent, leaving behind a mountain of debt.

Earlier this year Rastoder was reported to have purchase a significant stake of claims to Grep held by commercial banks. Finance says that the stake amounted to 30% of all claims, but does not provide a figure.

The businessman had earlier denied interest in the claims for Grep, only to establish a special company Trgovsko mesto, which Finance suggests has been used to conduct transactions related to Grep.

The purchase of claims to Grep would be the second major investment into a collapsed development project in the Slovenian capital by Rastoder in the past 18 months.

In late 2014, the businessman purchased land in downtown Ljubljana which had been part of a failed development of new office towers.

He subsequently sold the land to the Delta Holding from Serbia, which is now building a luxury hotel at the site.

Interestingly, Delta Holding had been the first investor in the commercial part of Stožice, pledging to provide EUR 242m for a shopping centre in 2008 before splitting with Grep and leaving the project over a year later due to the financial crisis.

According to balance sheets, Grep had over EUR 200m of debt, including EUR 140m in loans, at the end of 2015.