The sale was executed through an auction process, in which many private equities firms including US buyout group Centerbridge and Anacap, a London-based fund, as well as global financial organization competed to acquire EVO Banco.

The nationalized lender said that EVO Banco has €702m of loans, €1.6bn of deposits and serves nearly 249,218 clients with a non-performing loan rate of 0.4% in June.

Following completion of the transaction, the acquirer will get EVO Banco’s 80 branch offices and 590 employees, and there will be no branch closure nor lay off.

In order to keep the beleaguered lender on track, Spain infused €3.62bn, and a further €5.42bn was pumped by the European Union as bailout in December 2012. However, the lender required a further €4.5bn from the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FOBR).

The acquired entity was posting losses since being split from its parent group, although the acquirer said that it is confident that the lender would be able to grow.