The biggest single owner, cooperative Kapitalska zadruga (47.5%), is reported to be selling 25% of the bank, while a consortium around the financial firm KD Group has been trying to offload its stake of nearly 27% since the spring of 2016.

There is no official information about the sales procedures, but Delo reported that Kapitalska zadruga was seeking to sell nearly half of its stake to facilitate the repayment of a EUR 9m loan it had taken out in 2007 to take over DBS.

Kapitalska zadruga has to sell its stake by the end of March, when the repayment of the loan is due, the newspaper said.

Telekom, which is seeking to acquire the entire stock available with Modra zavarovalnica, had reportedly already expressed interest in acquiring a stake in Gorenjska banka in line with its strategy of expanding into new fields such as finance and energy.

According to Delo, binding bids for DBS have also been filed by Serbian AIK banka, which is in the process of taking over Gorenjska banka and said to be interested in virtually all banking investment in Slovenia, and insurer Prva osebna zavarovalnica, which bids for only 25%.

If all the available stock is bought by a single buyer, they will have to file a takeover bid for the entire DBS and get the green light from the central bank.

DBS only controls 2% of the market, but its 81 offices make up the third largest retail banking network in the country.