Pivovarna Laško said that the extension will ensure solvency for the duration of the sale of its 23% stake in retailer Mercator, adding that more information about the financial stabilisation process in the group will be presented to the press in the coming days.

The group is currently paying interest to the creditor banks on time and it expects to repay EUR 8.7m in principal amount by 30 April 2014. Pivovarna Laško is to pay EUR 1.2m, Pivovarna Union EUR 4.4m and Radenska EUR 3.1m.

According to the daily Dnevnik, the group will repay EUR 15m in principal amount by the end of the year to reduce its financial debt to EUR 345m. The sale of the Mercator stake is to reduce the debt to EUR 250m.

The Pivovarna Laško group is selling its 23% in Mercator as part of a consortium of owners which own a total of 53% in Slovenia's largest grocer to Croatia's Agrokor.

The Croatian conglomerate submitted a notification of concentration to the Slovenian Competition Protection Agency on 12 July, less than a month after it agreed to acquire the majority stake in retailer Mercator.