Banco Espirito Santo says closing Hong Kong operations

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo SA has told its clients in Hong Kong that it would be closing its branch in the Asian financial hub as part of a broad restructuring after a government bailout.

In the email to clients seen by Reuters, the bank said it would no longer accept orders in Hong Kong due to the closure.

An executive at the bank's Hong Kong office confirmed that it had ceased operating, and said that 11 staff are likely to lose their jobs.

The executive, who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the branch only carried out secondary trading of securities and did not have any investment banking or lending businesses.

Last month, the Portuguese government said it would spend 4.9 billion euros (4 billion pounds) to rescue Banco Espirito Santo, the country's largest listed bank.

(Reporting by Lawrence White and Vikram Subhedar; Editing by Miral Fahmy)