The potential bidder will have a month to consider the deal, the price of which is said to be the minimum possible sum in order for the state not to suffer a loss in the sell-off of its share.
Unofficial sources were also cited as saying that the highest previously received bid had come from Russian spirits magnate Yuri Sheffler and was worth an offered €105m.
Economics Minister Vjaceslavs Dombrovskis confirmed by phone to Panorāma that the government ruled on the Citadele sell-off in a closed meeting, however declined to comment any further. He has strongly criticized previous leaks of information from Cabinet meetings as threats in themselves to the hoped-for success of the deal.
Previous estimates had put the government's bottom line at €130m.
Citadele is one of two banking entities created in 2010 from bailed-out former Parex Bank. It handles the good-assets salvaged from the aftermath of the dramatic Parex failure and is obliged by law to be sold-off by the end of 2014. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development co-owns a 25% share. The European Commission recently found no fault with Latvia's state support for the spectacular trouble-child of its 2008 national financial crisis.
