Salomon, a company specialising in classifieds that is owned by media and printing group Krater, made an offer of just over one million euros for the 79.24% stake, Večer reports on Friday.

Astraea Investicije Ena, owned by Maribor businessman Jože Kojc, is offering just EUR 600,000, which the paper says is based on due diligence showing that the company needs additional capital.

The third offer was put forward by Dober Večer, a takeover vehicle incorporated by lobbyist Uroš Hakl, whose family holds significant interests in the construction and food industries, and former boss of telecoms company T-2 Sašo Todorović.

The paper reports that only Astraea Investicije Ena has secured the money for the takeover, the other two plan a leveraged takeover followed by cost-cutting and layoffs.

The seller will start negotiations with all three bidders and plans to make the decision by the end of the month, which will be followed by a request for clearance from the Culture Ministry.

Delo has been trying to offload the majority stake in Večer, which it acquired in 2008 for EUR 18m, since 2009, when it was ordered to sell due to concerns about competition in the market of general interest newspapers.

Several attempts have failed, most recently an auction in February at which the asking price was set at just over EUR 3m.