Any revelations about the bids in the current phase of the sale procedure could compromise the sale, the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SDH) said in a press release.

The SDH, which holds a 2.8% stake in Adria Airways and manages an additional 69.87% stake as the caretaker of state-owned assets, and the Bank Asset Management Company (BAMC), which owns 19.63%, will diligently examine the bids and continue with the sale procedure according to the schedule, the release says.

When the call for bids was published in July, Adria Airways chairman Mark Anžur was not willing to comment on the procedure. In January, when the sellers signed a memorandum of understanding, he said that it would be good to attract a small airline or a financial investors.

At the time, Anžur did not want to speculate on who could be interested in acquiring the Slovenian flag carrier, noting that major airlines, for example Lufthansa, had difficulties of their own.

Adria Airways last year returned to the black after years of negative operations, bringing a total of 1.113 million passengers and recording a net profit of EUR 921,000 and operating profit of EUR 3m.

This is another attempt to sell Adria Airways after the last one, which started in August 2012, failed. At the time the precursor of the SDH attempted to sell a 74.87% stake along with some minor shareholders.