The final decision will be made at an extraordinary shareholder meeting of Gorenjska banka by a consortium of shareholders selling a majority stake in the bank.

The consortium, which also includes the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH), the state-owned KAD fund, the investment fund York, the bank Abanka and insurer Zavarovalnica Triglav, put a 55% stake on sale in mid-2016.

The sales procedure is confidential but multiple media reports have suggested AIK, owned by Serbian millionaire Miodrag Kostić, Apollo, the US fund which also owns NKBM bank, and a fund owned by billionaire George Soros were shortlisted by the sellers.

AIK was seen as having the upper hand since it already owns over 20% of the bank and has been cleared by the central bank to raise its stake to over 50%.

The sale of Gorenjska banka was ordered by the central bank after Sava, its biggest single shareholder, sought court-mandated debt restructuring.

Gorenjska banka is one of the most successful and profitable Slovenian banks and the only major bank to do without a state-supplied capital injection in 2013 despite a significant capital shortfall.

It had a market share of assets of 4.7% at the end of September, totalling EUR 1.73bn, which makes it the seventh largest bank in Slovenia.

For the first six months of this year it reported a 20% year-on-year increase in net profit, to EUR 3.6m.

In the first nine months of the year, Gorenjska banka increased its total assets by 14.6% compared to the end of 2016, while its nine-month profit stood at EUR 4.7m.

Sava is the largest single shareholder, followed by AIK with 21%, the Bank Asset Management Company (BAMC) with 6.8% and Zavarovalnica Triglav with 4%.

The Banka Intesa Sanpaolo bank, formerly Banka Koper, recently sold its 1.6% stake in Gorenjska banka to an undisclosed buyer.

At the end of last year, the bank employed around 400 people.