Srei Infrastructure to buy Austrian bank unit - paper

VIENNA (Reuters) - Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd is poised to buy the domestic banking unit of nationalised Austrian lender Hypo Alpe Adria for 65.5 million euros, the newspaper Die Presse said.

In a story released ahead of publication on Thursday, the paper said negotiations on the sale had wrapped up and that regulators had signalled no problems with the planned takeover.

A spokesman for Hypo Alpe Adria declined to comment other than to say, "The relevant bodies of the bank have not taken any decision yet." The bank has said a sale is due by mid-2013.

Hemant Kanoria, chairman and managing director of Srei Infrastructure denied being interested in Austria or any other European Union territory when asked by Reuters on May 7 about reports it was eyeing the Hypo unit.

The European Commission has put intense pressure on Hypo Alpe Adria, which Austria had to take over in 2009, to sell its operating units by the end of this year or else face having to return more than 2 billion euros of state aid.

The bank and the government hope that an initial sale success can help persude Brussels to give it more time to complete sales of other units in Italy and the Balkans.

Austria is fearful rushed sales could hurt state finances ahead of elections due by late September. It is due to present a new reorganisation plan to Brussels before an end-May deadline.

(Reporting by Michael Shields in Vienna and Swati Pandey in Mumbai; Editing by Greg Mahlich)