Portugal’s Novo Banco is likely to be acquired by a Chinese owner. Several Chinese firms have offered higher bids than other contenders, according to media reports.

Chinese insurer Anbang and Chinese financial conglomerate Fosun International in April each presented bids of just over 4 billion euros (US$4.4 billion) to buy the Portuguese lender. These are far higher sums than the bids offered by three other contenders, news agency Reuters reported, citing banking sources it didn’t name.

Portugal’s central bank received five non-binding offers in April and is now awaiting their binding offers for Novo Banco by a June 30 deadline. Novo Banco is the successor to Banco Espírito Santo, which nearly collapsed last year and had to be bailed out by the Portuguese government with 4.9 billion euros.

British financial newspaper Financial Times quoted an unidentified source saying the two Chinese firms have “the financial capacity to make strong bids” and are “the most interested in developing the bank”.

The newspaper also highlighted that the potential Novo Banco deal would become the biggest European financial services acquisition by a China-based group since a 3-billion-euros purchase of a stake in U.K. bank Barclays by China Development Bank in 2007.

Fosun has already entered the Portuguese market with the purchase last year of Fidelidade, one of the country’s leading insurers, at 1.7 billion euros.