Madrid, Sep 9 (IANS): Spain's nationalised bank Novagalicia Banco announced Monday it sold its EVO Banco unit to the US firm Apollo Global Management.

Novagalicia Banco, which mainly operates in the northern region of Galicia, agreed to sell EVO Banco (its unit that operates outside Galicia) for 60 million euros ($79.2 million), the first foreign acquisition of a Spanish nationalised bank, reported Xinhua.

EVO Banco has 702 million euros of loans, 1.6 billion euros of deposits and 249,218 clients with a non-performing loan rate of 0.4 percent as opposed to the country's average of 11.6 percent reached in June.

EVO Banco has 80 branches and 590 workers, both of which will be maintained after the US firm buys EVO.

Novagalicia Banco received 5.425 billion euros from the European Union's bailout in December 2012, after Spain had injected 3.627 billion euros into the entity, which announced in June 2012 that it required a further 4.5 billion euros more from the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FOBR).