Shares in Swiss bank EFG jump on renewed takeover speculation

ZURICH (Reuters) - Shares in Swiss bank EFG International rose by as much as 10% on Thursday fuelled by a media report that the bank could soon be subject to a takeover bid by Swiss rival Julius Baer.

Swiss financial news website Inside Paradeplatz said there was market talk Julius Baer was lining up a bid for EFG in shares and cash worth 4.5 billion Swiss francs ($5.05 billion), although it described the information as "speculation".

Reuters reported in late May that Julius Baer had held talks with EFG about a potential takeover in recent months but that the discussions had stopped.

Spokespeople for Julius Baer and EFG declined to comment.

Shares in EFG rose by as much as 10.3% before paring gains to trade up by 7.8% at 1028 GMT. By contrast, shares in Julius Baer were down by more than 5%.

($1 = 0.8908 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Oliver Hirt; editing by Jason Neely and Tomasz Janowski)