The Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH) signed a EUR 232,000 contract with the consultancy on Monday, demanding that the appraisal be carried out by foreign experts exclusively to prevent interference from domestic circles, the paper wrote.

Slovenia must sell NLB, which has been in full state-ownership since it was bailed out in late 2013, by the end of 2017 in line with a commitment made to the European Commission in exchange for the state aid.

A key role in the sale will be the price of NLB, which should be on a par with the bank's book value. According to the bank's website, NLB's book value per share was at EUR 63 at the end of September, and the book value of its capital topped EUR 1.26bn.

The sale procedure gained new momentum last week, when NLB's unaudited results for 2016 were published. The banking group saw its net profit increase by 20% to EUR 110m year-on-year and the net profit at Slovenia's biggest bank alone soared 45% to EUR 63.8m.

The SSH is expected to issue an IPO prospectus in cooperation with advisor Deutsche Bank at the beginning of May, while the SSH could stage roadshows in global financial capitals as early as April.