Only four banks remained in consortium for sale of Slovenian Mercator

There are only four banks left in the consortium that offers the stocks of Slovenian Mercator for sale and they now offer total of 16% of stocks of that market chain.

- After Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) and Banka Celje gave up the sale of Mercator, the consortium of banks was also left by Abanka Vipa and Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (NKBM) - Slovenian newspaper Delo wrote.

In that way, Mercator's share that is offered to investment funds dropped from 36% to aforementioned 16% in relatively short time.

People from Arkas, which runs the sale of Mercator, say that "all others are staying" in the consortium.

The shares in Mercator are offered for sale by UniCredit Bank Slovenia (8.01%), Gorenjska Banka (3.8%), Banka Koper (2.08%) and Hypo Bank (2.01%).

In early February 2010 Slovenian public reacted to the news that certain investment funds and Croatian Agrokor were interested in takeover of more than one third of Mercator at the time, which was the occasion for many to ask themselves if that sale was going to be the blow to Slovenian food industry.