The agreement, signed on Thursday, was reached by the Slovenia Sovereign Holding (SSH), the Bank Asset Management Company (BAMC) and the PDP restructuring firm, the SSH said in a press release on Friday.

The custodian of state assets is selling a 69.87% in Adria Airways, the bad bank BAMC is selling a 19.63% stake transferred from the NLB bank, and the PDP is offloading a 2.08% stake.

The remaining biggest single owners are the Abanka Vipa bank (4.74%), Hypo Alpe Adria Bank (1.81%) and Unicredit banka Slovenija (1.76%).

The PDP is awaiting the planned merger with the SSH, with the deadline set at 23 April, the holding has told the STA.

Adria boss Mark Anžur told the STA it would be best for the sellers to focus on small airlines or financial investors, as big players have "problems of their own".

If Adria is acquired by a firm that wants to fold it into existing operations, the main challenge will be consolidation.

Financial investors, meanwhile, must "believe in the story", which would mean the continued implementation of the new strategy and measures to improve competitiveness, he said.

Adria has not yet reported its financials for 2014. Anžur said that passenger numbers had risen about 7% year-on-year, with the company expected to break even.

In 2013 the carrier made a EUR 1.15m operating profit and a net loss of EUR 2.87m.