Mercator director Ziga Debeljak was quoted as underscoring in a response to the sellers' consortium that Agrokor is a regional competition to Mercator, which is why the Mercator management is willing to enable the Croatian concern to have a limited due diligence review of the Slovenian retail chain, with the engagement of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation in the negotiations.

According to the response published on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange on Wednesday, the management also proposed "possible alternative approaches to protect the interests of the Mercator Group".

It also proposed obtaining "the formal approval of the EBRD or the IFC, irrespective of their not being the buyers of the Mercator shares, of their direct immediate involvement in the negotiating process to reach an agreement aimed at protecting the interests of the Mercator Group and ultimately becoming a party to such an agreement together with Agrokor. If they have a genuine interest to enter into the transaction at a later stage, this should probably not be a big obstacle."

The third alternative approach is that, "in the absence of EBRD and/or IFC as the contractual parties in the agreement aimed at protecting the interests of Mercator Group, at least one reputable and solid financial institution signs the agreement – i.e. a bank which is currently also an important Mercator shareholder and has the interest to sell Mercator’s shares. Such financial institution can be a contractual party of the agreement aimed at protecting the interest for its entire duration of such agreement or only temporarily until the EBRD and/or IFC enter into it."

The Mercator supervisory board and management are expected to consider the sale procedure at their meeting on Friday.