In its current state, without the exclusion of bad loans, the bank is not interesting for any investors, the Finance Ministry told the STA on Thursday.

KAD and SOD received special funds at the end of last year and they have not yet spent all on the recapitalisation of NLB bank earlier this year, the ministry said.

The ministry opted for the move because the act establishing a bad bank onto which non-performing loans will be transferred has been held up by referendum requests.

This means that NKBM would not be able to get rid of bad loans by the end of the year and meet capital requirements set by the European Banking Authority and the Slovenian central bank.

NKBM shareholders have been asked to support a EUR 50m capital increase at the 11 December shareholder meeting, with the dailies Delo and Dnevnik reporting today that KAD and SOD would each contribute EUR 25m.

If the capital increase is successful, the state and para-state funds would end up controlling about 75% of NKBM.