HBOS may help the consortium whose attempted takeover of Irish hotel group Jurys Doyle ran into trouble last week after it lost bank backing to resurrect its bid.
Following a major setback for Precinct Investments last Thursday, when Anglo Irish Bank withdrew financial support for a euros - 1.1bn (GBP750m) provisional offer for Jurys, the company is understood to have had talks with HBOS.
Precinct is headed by Irish property developer Brian Cullen and backed by British billionaires Simon and David Reuben, with whom Edinburghheadquartered HBOS has worked on a number of projects.
However, while HBOS has made no secret of its enthusiasm for asset-backed firms like hotels, Precinct may have to move fast to clinch a deal for Jurys, which operates four hotels in Glasgow.
The company's board last week withdrew its support for the takeover proposal, which was the fourth made by Precinct in recent months.
Jurys Doyle terminated the due diligence process being carried out by the consortium, which faces a September 2 deadline set by regulators to either make a concrete bid for the hotels business or walk away.
"They need an extension (to the deadline) before Friday because I don't think they can finish due diligence by then - they've lost a few days, " said Brid White, analyst at Merrion Stockbrokers in Dublin. "They need to move quickly."
The Reuben brothers, who amassed a huge fortune from interests spanning mining and property, are probably best known in Scotland for backing Tom Hunter's unsuccessful bid to buy the Selfridges retail business in 2003. This was also backed by HBOS, which declined to comment about Jurys Doyle.
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