The buyer announced the news on its web site, saying that it would pay EUR 15.4m for the plot, which it plans to finance with its own sources outright.

The 9,932 square metre plot was where developer Jože Anderlič had initially planned to build an extravagant complex housing a huge concert and opera house, a housing and office tower and a shopping mall.

The South African buyer plans to invest EUR 70m into the construction of a multi-purpose real estate complex comprising flats, shops and offices. The construction is slated to begin in September.

For the past three years the plot was in the hands of Tivoli Projekt, whose majority owner is Kranjska stavbna družba, the healthy branch of Anderlič's empire.

Greenbay has recently also bought the Koper shopping mall Planet Tuš, the property of indebted grocer Tuš.