VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) reported a 7 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit as sharp market moves in December hit its bond-trading business.

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC (APO.N) is considering making a bid for Portuguese lender Novo Banco SA, the bank carved out of Banco Espirito Santo SA (BES) (BES.LS), Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Portugal has begun sounding out Spanish banks on their interest in buying Novo Banco, the successor to the state-rescued Banco Espirito Santo (BES), several sources familiar with the talks said on Tuesday.

On June 9, with his 150-year-old Portuguese corporate dynasty close to collapse, patriarch Ricardo Espirito Santo Salgado made a desperate attempt to save it.