The daily Delo reports on Friday that Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH) has concluded negotiations with Apollo, a US private equity fund, on the purchase of the NKBM bank. Apollo reportedly offered about EUR 200m for what is Slovenia's second largest bank.

While Delo says that this bengs the process of the NKBM sale to an end, SSH denied this in its response.

"The process of NKBM sale has not been concluded yet and the public will be immediately informed about all important developments," SSH said in a written statement today.

According to Delo, the final stage of negotiations between Apollo and SSH has revolved around the issue of who will take over the possible expenses stemming from the 2013 wipe-out of subordinated bond holders.

According to Delo's unofficial information, SSH and Apollo have come to an agreement that the possible costs would be dived between NKBM and the state.

The owners of NKBM subordinate bonds, who were wiped out as part of efforts to enable recapitalisation of state-owned banks, are currently challenging the move at the Constitutional Court.

Apollo was reportedly competing against Hungarian bank OTP, partly owned by Russians, which offered EUR 130m for NKBM.

OTP boss Sandor Csanyi has recently said the bank is ready to raise its bid if some of NKBM's toxic investments were excluded from the sale.