Financier Guy Hands looks set to retake control of struggling hotel chain Le Méridien as creditors lean towards a joint £150m rescue plan put forward by his Terra Firma company and Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
The deal is rumoured to involve Hands's private equity group injecting £30m while Prince Alwaleed would stump up the remaining £120m.
Talks are continuing, but any plan accepted by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which owns 11 of Le Méridien's UK properties, will require agreement from the group's 14 senior bank lenders, who are owed an estimated £750m.
The Hands deal would mean the banks, which include Merrill Lynch and CIBC, agreeing to write off some of this debt for good.
A competing bid by US bank Lehman Brothers, involving Hyatt Corporation taking control of Le Méridien's non-UK properties, is believed to have run into difficulties over the weekend.
RBS is still owed £16m in rent and retains the power to push the group into administrative receivership should no solution be agreed.
Le Méridien, which has 135 hotels around the world, was placed under control of its bankers in April after a collapse in trading left the group with debts of £1b and a value of just £700m.