LISBON: The Bank of Portugal has ended negotiations with a potential buyer of state-rescued Novo Banco after failing to reach an agreement, saying that it will now start talks with the second-placed bidder for the bank.
"As no agreement has been reached, the Bank of Portugal decided today to end those negotiations and invite the second-placed potential buyer into negotiations," the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.
Sources have told Reuters that the first-placed bidder was China's Anbang Insurance Group Co while US fund Apollo Global Management and China's Fosun International have also presented binding offers.
Novo Banco is the "good bank" carved out of Banco Espirito Santo (BES) after a 4.9 billion euro state rescue in August 2014 of the country's then second-largest lender, which had crumbled under the weight of its founding family's debts.
It was Portugal's biggest ever financial collapse.
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