Thai lender Thanachart Bank has held discussions with ING Groep about buying the Dutch financial services company's 31 percent stake in TMB Bank Pcl , although the talks are no longer continuing, a person familiar with the matter said.The talks come after ING failed to interest foreign banks in its TMB stake last year. A sale to a domestic lender is likely to meet fewer regulatory obstacles in a country where foreign ownership above 49 percent requires government approval, people familiar with the process have said.ING's 31 percent holding in Thailand's seventh-largest lender is valued at about $942 million based on Wednesday's closing price. The European firm has been exiting its non-core businesses as part of a wider asset sale programme to pay down the state aid it received during the global financial crisis.Thanachart Bank, which is 49 percent owned by Canada's Bank of Nova Scotia, has been interested in acquiring the stake for some time but Thailand's political stalemate has slowed negotiations, the person added.
The Bank of Nova Scotia (the Bank) is a diversified financial institution. Shares of BNS traded higher by 1.1% or $0.6/share to $54.96. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $52.05 and as high as $63.50. On average, 470498 shares of BNS exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 679185.
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