According to TV Slovenija, the French company has already confirmed the bid, which reportedly stands at EUR 50 per share of the operator of the Jože Pučnik Ljubljana Airport, or EUR 96.7m for the entire stake.

It is not known whether the government received other bids for Aerodrom Ljubljana. In the past, interest was expressed by Gruppo Save, the operator of the Venice airport and Friedmann Pacific, the owner of the Hong Kong-based China Aircraft Leasing Company.

Also interested in acquiring the majority stake in the state-owned company is reportedly Fraport of Germany, which operates the Frankfurt airport, the main hub for Lufthansa. Besides the French, the German company is said to have the best chances of buying Aerodrom Ljubljana.

The Brnik-based airport operator is considered one of the more attractive companies the Alenka Bratušek government has put on the priority list of 15 companies, two of which have already been sold.

It remains to be seen whether the sale of Aerodrom Ljubljana will proceed as Bratušek decided on Thursday to slow down the privatisation procedure until the appointment of a new government after the 13 July general election.