Arriva Dolenjska in Primorska agreed to buy a 59.21% stake in the tour operator at EUR 55 per share pending clearance from the Slovenian and German anti-trust authorities, the company said Wednesday.

If it receives the go-ahead from the competition authorities and acquires the majority stake, Arriva may decide to publish a takeover bid for the remaining outstanding stock.

The majority stake has been put on sale by a consortium including the bank Banka Celje, holding Modra linija and Alpen Invest.

Arriva Dolenjska in Primorska is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arriva Europe GmbH, which is part of the Deutsche Bahn group. It operates city buses in Koper, Piran and Novo mesto, as well as intercity buses in western and south Slovenia.

Alpetour is a travel agent that also operates public bus lines in the northern Gorenjsko region. It posted sales of almost EUR 17m for 2014, level on the year before, with net profit almost doubling to EUR 2.6m.

The takeover price is about 10% above the current market price on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, which itself more than doubled over the past year.