National City Corp may have attracted the attention of rival KeyCorp, but its chances of clinching a rich offer may be tough, analysts said.

“At the moment National City Bank is a mystery,” said Punk, Ziegel & Co. analyst Richard Bove said.

National City, which has been hurt by mortgage losses, has seen its stock whipsawed over the past year. Its 52-week high stood at $37.99, while its low fell as far as $6.56. The stock traded Wednesday morning at $10.02, giving the Midwestern bank a market capitalization of $6.3 billion.

National City put itself on the block on Tuesday, hiring Goldman Sachs as its strategic advisor. Goldman had been the sole book-runner and underwriter of National City’s debt offerings in January.

“One might assume that Goldman has already been exploring a possible sale well before this announcement was made. Yet there have been no buyers,” Bove said. “One must assume Goldman has also been exploring other options such as the possible divestiture of some of the bank’s assets.”

Another round of capital-raising could be difficult in this market, and National City has already sold several divisions and closed others, Bove said. The bank may try to clean up its books in the first quarter through several write downs, he said.

“This leads one to wonder what those outsiders who have been looking at the books under confidentiality agreements are seeing,” Bove said.

“I do not believe that a buyer would be willing to pay a meaningful premium to buy the company due to balance sheet issues. However, if National City takes a significant write-off and cleanses its balance sheet on its own, the story changes and this company then becomes an attractive retail franchise that could attract more than one buyer.”

Bove cited KeyCorp, Fifth Third and the Bank of Montreal as potential suitors. National City and KeyCorp declined to comment on The Wall Street Journal’s report of talks for a possible deal. Last month, shares of National City got a boost on market rumors of a deal with HSBC.

Lehman analyst Jason Goldberg said “given the value we see inherent in the franchise, we believe an outright sale could be in the best interest of shareholders if the buyer would take a similar view.”

Yet he was still cautious, saying “with JPM/BSC a prime example, transactions can get done at steep discounts.”