Supernova will thus take over shopping centres in Ajdovščina, Celje, Jesenice, Koper, Ljubljana, Postojna, Novo Mesto, Slovenj Gradec and two in Kranj.

The two sides agreed Mercator will rent the premises it needs for its business for 15 years with the option of extending cooperation under the same conditions.

Despite having sold the ten shopping centres, Mercator will own 81% of the property in which it carries out its retail business.

Mercator, which is owned by Croatia's Agrokor, launched the sale of some of its property holdings at the end of 2017 by selling a shopping centre in Belgrade, Serbia.

Its divestment drive involves a total of 17 shopping centres in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Once the sale in Slovenia is completed, Mercator will start selling the holdings in the two Balkan countries after it published an international call for investors and funds which are involved in property management at the start of 2018.

Today's contract proves Mercator is successfully continuing its divestment project with a view to facilitate the group's long-term development, Mercator chairman Tomislav Čizmić was quoted as saying.

He believes the sale of the ten malls "creates a solid foundation for a new investment cycle, particularly for a new distribution and logistics centre in Ljubljana".

The new centre is needed, according to Čizmić, to cut logistics costs and to streamline and modernise operations.

Čizmić said in April Mercator hoped to raise some EUR 300m with the monetisation of real estate and sale of non-essential assets.

Supernova group owner Frank Albert said today the contract was fair and would contribute to long-term cooperation.

"It will secure Supernova and Mercator a leading position in the Slovenian market, as Supernova is expanding its portfolio of renowned shopping centres in larger Slovenian towns and Mercator is focusing on its main line of business," he said.

Supernova develops and manages property investments, with its portfolio currently topping one billion euro.

Supernova Invest has recently set up a new company in Slovenia, Supernova MC Lju, which was believed to be related to the purchase of Mercator's shopping centres.

Together with its company M2, Supernova has built around a dozen shopping centres in Slovenia. The investment into its mall with 70 stores in Ljubljana's Rudnik borough topped EUR 50m.