American investment firm Sankaty Advisors has submitted the highest bid for Bank of Cyprus’ EUR 545 million portfolio in Romania, which was put up for sale in August 2014, according to financial blog CoStarFinance.com.

The asset sale, dubbed Project Ariadne, was managed by British group HSBC.

Sankaty Advisors, which is backed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for this deal, made an offer of around 20% of the portfolio’s nominal value. This implies a valuation of about EUR 109 million.

However, the transaction is currently on hold, as Bank of Cyprus was hoping to get a higher offer. If the deal falls through, this could impact international investor appetite for future loan or hard asset portfolio sales from Romania.

Sankaty is an investment firm specialised in managing international debt portfolios. It manages about USD 24 billion worth of assets, including leveraged loans, high-yield bonds, distressed debt, private lending, structured products, non-performing loans (NPLs) and equities. The firm is an affiliate of Bain Capital, an alternative investment firm with some USD 70 billion assets under management. Bain Capital was founded in 1984 by Bill Bain and former American presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Sankaty and EBRD have outbid Deutsche Bank and The Baupost Group, who bid together, as well as HIG Bayside and AnaCap Financial Partners, according to CoStarFinance.com.

Deutsche Bank and AnaCap have bought several other non-performing loan (NPL) portfolios in Romania in the last year. Deutsche Bank bought a EUR 433 million NPL portfolio from BCR, Romania’s largest bank, for EUR 28 million.

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editor@romania-insider.com