Hungary's privatization agency, APV Rt. said Thursday that it has invited five of six bidders into the second round for the sale of state-owned retail bank Postabank Rt

Hungary's privatization agency, APV Rt. said Thursday that it has invited five of six bidders into the second round for the sale of state-owned retail bank Postabank Rt. The five bidders will have July and August to study the bank's accounts and will be asked to make their final, binding bids in September. The APV declined to name the five bidders. Based on earlier reports and statements, the six original bidders are General Electric's Budapest Bank; Citigroup's local unit Citibank Rt.; Germany's HVB Group AG ; Austria's Erste Bank AG ; Hungary's OTP Rt. ; and a consortium of U.S. private equity firms Advent International Corp. and Warburg Pincus L.L.C. . The government plans to provide Postabank's buyer with certain guarantees for pending court cases, some of which are related to the financial scandals and near collapse of the bank in the late 1990s. Financial consolidation of Postabank cost the government close to $1 billion in 1998. The cases currently involve around 4 billion forints ($1=HUF236.99), state news agency's Econews service reported, citing the finance ministry. The state and Postabank will split responsibility for the HUF4 billion evenly, while any amount over HUF4 billion will be paid by the government, finance ministry spokesman Daniel Mate said.