Close Brothers, the UK investment bank, asset and wealth manager, held talks last week with Blackstone, the US private equity firm, that might lead to an offer to rival that tabled by Cenkos and Landsbanki last November.

According to the Financial Times, Blackstone could work with UK financial services group Collins Stewart on an offer. The latter would be interested in Close's market-making business, Winterflood.

Cenkos, headed by former Collins Stewart founder Andy Stewart, teamed up with Iceland's Landsbanki last year to make an approach for the whole of Close, but Close rejected the £1.1 billion ($2.2 billion) offer and has refused to meet the bidders or their advisors.

Cenkos plans to take control of Close's asset management arm, its corporate advisory and investment banking business and Winterflood. Landsbanki intends to buy Close's corporate bank, which offers deposits and loans to small and medium-sized UK companies.

In the meantime, there has been contact between Close and other possible buyers, including Orix of Japan and Tata of India, although it is understood Tata's interest has cooled and Orix is unlikely to be interested in the whole company.

Close went through a management buy-out in 1979, led by Rod Kent, now chairman. It listed in 1984 and in 1993 bought Winterflood for £19 million, which has secured its position as London's biggest market-maker in small-cap stocks.

There are several possible bidders for each of Close's main businesses - Winterflood, asset management and lending - but few for the whole.

At the time of the approach, Cenkos said it would improve performance at Close, which has underperformed its competition over the past three years, by raising employee share ownership. Close staff currently hold little equity in the business.

Meanwhile Close Brothers was braced for further defections from its investment trust team, following the resignations of five members last week to join rival Numis.

Numis has offered the five new hires – Charles Cade, Simon Elliott, David Benda, Nathan Brown and Chris Gook – equity in Numis, which is already more than 60 per cent owned by its staff and has the highest revenue per head in the mid-cap broking sector.

It is understood that up to seven more staff from Wins Investment Trusts – part of Winterflood – are also considering joining Numis, which is new to the investment trust business.

The most recent series of departures come not long after Andrzej Sobczak, a corporate broker at Wins IT, left to join Carousel, a hedge fund that invests in investment trusts. Mr Sobczak was a former head of equities at BZW and in charge of the trust teams at BZW and Hoare Govett.