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This clears the final hurdle for the takeover of one of Slovenia's largest newspaper publishers pending the payment of a reported one million euros to Večer's majority shareholder Delo.

The Ministry of Culture, which is in charge of media policy, had given provisional clearance to the deal prior to the completion of the sale.

The bid by Dober Večer, owned by lobbyist Uroš Hakl and former T-2 chairman Sašo Todorović, was picked among four bids for the 79.24% stake, in what was the latest attempt by Delo to comply with an anti-monopoly decree to offload its holding.

Delo had been trying to offload the stake, 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.

Under the law, Dober Večer will now have to offer to buy out the minority interests held by the Slovenia Sovereign Holding (10%), newsstand operator Delo Prodaja (6.9%) and small shareholders at the same price per share.