UAE Mashreq Bank has received offers from several international companies to purchase its payments unit.
According to Bloomberg, Brookfield Asset Management and Network International Holdings are among the potential bidders.
The agency also quoted sources as saying that Payout TPG is also among those interested in the unit, which could be worth between $500 million and $700 million.
The sources said that Mashreq Bank has received initial bids and is in the process of making a short list of the initially accepted offers. Or he may decide to keep the unit until other offers appear.
Representatives from Mashreq, Brookfield, Network International and TPG declined to comment.
Mashreq has hired Goldman Sachs to evaluate offers from potential buyers of the unit - which handles credit and debit card transactions.
New Bay
The company split its payments arm into a new unit, known as NeoPay. The unit processes about $22 billion across sectors on an annual basis and handled more than 300 million transactions last year.
Mashreq's bigger rival, First Abu Dhabi Bank, also set up its payments business last year, after which it sold 60% of the unit to a Brookfield unit. If the latter succeeds in acquiring New Bay, it may allow the Canadian investor to unite the two companies.
Meanwhile, Network International was incorporated in 1994 as a subsidiary of Emirates Bank. Private equity firms Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic bought a stake in the payments company - backed by Emirates NBD - in 2015, before the company was listed in London less than four years later.
