Indirectly owned by Serbian businessman Miodrag Kostić, AIK Banka already holds 32.9% in the seventh biggest bank in Slovenia, and will now be able to wrap up the acquisition of additional 37.6% from the conglomerate Sava.

The deal has already been approved by the Serbian central bank and the Serbian and Slovenian competition watchdogs.

Sava's shareholders approved the sale to AIK Banka in late June, after which the latter deposited the EUR 43m onto a fiduciary account, where the money would remain up to a year. AIK Banka now has to finalise the takeover proceedings.

AIK Banka first attempted to take over Gorenjska Banka in December 2017 but was forced to stop because it failed to acquired all the necessary approvals.

However, Sava was ordered to sell its share in Gorenjska Banka by the central bank after finding itself in a court-mandated debt restructuring and opted for AIK Banka.

Gorenjska Banka generated EUR 11.38m in net profit last year, which was 3.2 times as much as the year before. Operating profit was up nearly two-fold to EUR 13.80m.

Kostić has said that AIK Banka and Gorenjska Banka were similar in terms of how much assets they have. AIK Banka wants to expand its business from Serbia to Slovenia, as well as Montenegro and Croatia, he said.

He added that AIK Banka would profit from fast digitalisation of services provided to households, something other banks would not be able to do as fast.