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Before Laško's official confirmation of these figures, media reports said that the agreement tasks conglomerate Agrokor with providing a EUR 225m capital increase for Mercator, of which EUR 200m are to go directly to creditor banks.

The rest would be earmarked for working capital, while the banks would contribute an additional EUR 100m in loans meant to help manage Mercator's EUR 1bn in debt.

Today an extended deadline for a restructuring of Mercator's debt expired. It was linked to the validity of the sales agreement which was penned in June last year and in which Agrokor was offering EUR 120 per share of what is Slovenia's biggest employer.

In line with the original agreement the debt restructuring was a condition for entering the phase of the deal in which Agrokor, alone or with partners, would need to secure the funds - estimated at slightly over half a billion euros - for the 53% stake and later also for the remainder.

If the conditions had not been changed, Agrokor would have been allowed to withdraw from the deal without paying any penalties.

Creditor banks should have initially already said in January what kind of debt restructuring they would accept, a deal was however not reached and Agrokor proposed an extension of the deadline twice.

Media reported that the sellers wished to secure a price as close as possible to EUR 120, while creditor banks wanted Agrokor to provide as large a capital increase for Mercator as possible with a view to getting back their loans. The situation is additionally complicated by the sellers also including some of the banks.