BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Societe Generale and E*Trade Group have each tabled seperate bids for European online brokerage Consors, according to a report in Die Welt.
The German daily says Europe's number two online broker may fetch a price of up to EUR700 million in an auction involving at least four bidders, in which the winner would have to make the offer, equal to EUR1200 per ConSors customer, to all shareholders.
According to the Die Welt report, a group of banks including Germany's biggest, Deutsche Bank, are seeking to sell lossmaking ConSors after its parent SchmidtBank collapsed last year. ConSors current market value stands at around EUR519 million. Shares in the online broker rose as much as 9.8 per cent on the news.