The long-running saga concerning the sale of Egg has taken a new twist with yet another company emerging as favourite to buy the UK Internet bank.

Capital One, the US credit card giant, has offered £1.4bn for the Prudential's 79 per cent share in Egg, according to The Sunday Telegraph. The emergence of Capital One as a favourite to buy Egg comes as a bid by former front-runner, US rival MBNA, appears to be running out of puff, the newspaper reports.

Capital One was established in 1995 and has become a major player in the credit card industry, with 46.7m customers and managed loans totalling $71.8bn (£39bn).

The Pru has been looking for a buyer for its Internet bank for more than six months. Last year, Egg more than doubled its losses to £34.4m blaming the loss on poor business in France. Good profits for the UK business - £72.8m in the UK - were eaten up by losses of £89.1m in France.

Shares in Egg were unchanged at 159.25p in early morning trading. ®

Related stories

Egg punters up, losses down (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/21/egg_bank/)
Egg decorated for site accessibility in DRC study (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/15/drc_names_notshames/)
Lloyds TSB leads the great Egg race (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/01/lloyds_tsb_leads_the_great/)
Egg blames France for big losses (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/02/23/egg_blames_france_for_big/)
Pru in talks to sell Egg (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/01/15/pru_in_talks_to_sell/)