Carlyle et al circle Spain's Mare Nostrum

According to sources, the investors are competing for a 20% stake in the entity, which has €71bn in assets. The sales process is being run by Nomura, and JC Flowers is also said to have expressed an interest, having contemplated a number of similar deals within the Spanish market.

Banco Mare Nostrum initially attracted 20 bidders, but only five or six of these placed non-binding bids in late June. They will now have the chance to examine the bank's loans portfolio and revenues before binding bids are due at the end of this month.

The prospective sale is expected to complete by the end of August and could raise €150-200m, based on the valuations at which fellow lenders Bankia and Banca Civica began selling shares for their IPOs earlier this week. The company, which has a book value of €2.5bn, received €915m from the Spanish bailout fund, the FROB, in 2010, which must be repaid within five years.

Mare Nostrum has future plans to list on the stock exchange.

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• Topics
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