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According to the daily, the banks terminated expired loan contracts with the conglomerate and launched debt enforcement procedures because they believe the managers, who carried out one of the biggest management buyouts in Slovenia in 2008, damaged the debtor's property.

The cars-to-telecoms conglomerate ACH, including the MBO vehicle Protej, which controls 91.4% of the holding, owes EUR 129m in net financial debt to the banks, according to Finance.

The banks reportedly disagree with the dividend payout endorsed in late December by the shareholders' meetings of ACH, Protej and ACH subsidiary Adria Mobil, the Novo mesto-based maker of caravans and mobile homes, as a result of which Protej became a majority owner of Adria Mobil.

The shareholders endorsed a EUR 27m payout from Adria Mobil and a EUR 21.7m payout from ACH. Since the companies did not have the money, Protej received a 66% stake in Adria Mobil instead, the dailies Dnevnik and Finance reported on Tuesday.

According to the dailies, bankers announced that unless the shareholders' decisions were annulled, they would request a court-mandated debt restructuring or receivership for ACH and Protej.

However, Finance cited an unnamed source from the banks as saying the latter possibility was unlikely, while he expected the ACH management to initiate debt restructuring to buy some more time.

The changes in ownership of Adria Mobil have so far not been entered in the companies registry, while ACH officials have said that Adria Mobil bonds would be used solely to repay debt to the creditor banks.

Despite the assurances, talks on a long-term loan modification for ACH have been halted. According to Finance, this means that ACH is now officially insolvent. While conforming no agreement had been reached with the banks, ACH denied being insolvent.

ACH general manager Sonja Gole, who is also CEO of Adria Mobil, had according to Dnevnik been trying to reorganise the ACH group around Adria Mobil and car dealership Autocommerce so as to reduce it to the two divisions.

The real estate and the other financial investments (virtual mobile operator Debitel, Grand Hotel Union and IT company Perftech) were to be sold off so that ACH could repay its debts to banks.

But the plan fell through as the central bank launched in September the orderly wind-down of Factor banka, the bank in 40% ownership of ACH, as a result of which ACH lost EUR 22m.

The creditor banks then called for Adria Mobil and Autocommerce to be sold off, while ACH has also been ordered to get rid of Debitel, according to Finance, which says the operator would be offered at around EUR 10m.