German shipping finance provider HSH Nordbank sees a good chance of finding a buyer, its finance chief said. "Despite the difficult market environment, we have very good prospects of selling the bank," Oliver Gatzke told the Boersen Zeitung newspaper.

HSH Nordbank met potential buyers in London in November ahead of the German lender's planned privatisation this year, people close to the matter told Reuters.

HSH's owners - the northern German states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg jointly hold 85 percent - have to privatise the bank by the end of February 2018 and have mandated Citi to organise the process, due to start in early 2017.

Copyright Reuters, 2017