OREANDA-NEWS. February 17, 2015. The Bank of Portugal has trimmed down the list of potential bidders for Novo Banco - the successor to Banco Espirito Santo after a state rescue - saying that 15 out of 17 institutions that had expressed interest in the sale met its requirements.

The central bank said in a statement on Monday it asked the 15 pre-qualified institutions to sign a confidentiality agreement, after which they will have until March 20 to present non-binding offers. It did not provide any names or details.

Last August, the state rescued the bank with a 4.9 billion euro package, mostly in public funds, after the business empire of the bank's founding Espirito Santo family collapsed.

The state plans to sell Novo Banco this year to recover the rescue funds.

So far, Portugal's Banco BPI and Spain's Santander and Banco Popular have publicly said they are interested in Novo Banco.

Local media have said that China's Fosun and US private equity firm Apollo Global Management have also expressed interest.