Hypo Alpe Adria

Croats stuck with huge debts over loans taken out in Swiss Francs are celebrating a final court ruling in their favour on Wednesday - confirming an initial verdict five years ago.

A group of Montenegrin borrowers, represented by the Center for Consumer Protection, has taken the Hypo Alpe Adra Bank to court in Podgorica after it refused to convert their increasingly expensive Swiss franc loans into euro - and change variable rates to fixed.

Advent International and a Bulgarian-Russian consortium headed by businessman Denis Barekov are reportedly the key bidders for nationalized Austrian bank Hypo Alpe Adria.

The bank, which Austria nationalized in 2009 to prevent its collapse, is to sell its Balkan network by mid-2015 at the behest of the EU Commission.

A US private equity fund, a Russian millionaire and a Bulgarian entrepreneur are showing their interest in Hypo Alpe Adria bank's subsidiaries, an Austrian daily argues.

Hypo Alpe Adria is to sell its branches across Southeast Europe, namely in Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the countries where it is present.