Haitong in talks to purchase Portuguese investment banking unit

Mainland China’s second largest brokerage firm, Haitong Securities, is in talks to buy Portuguese bank Banco Espirito Santo’s investment banking unit, South China Morning Post reported. The deal would be Haitong’s first acquisition outside China, and has been reported to be valued around EUR400 million (US$495.4 million), although the official terms of the proposed deal have not been disclosed. The investment unit’s parent company, Banco Espirito Santo, was bailed out by the Portuguese central bank and is now looking to recoup the money through asset sales. The investment unit employs about 1,000 people and had EUR5.8 billion in assets at the end of June 2014.