The Portuguese government against the sale of Novo Banco to Caixa
Spanish banks are already worth a third of Portugal's banking market. French Bpce also in the field to take over 75% of Banco from the Lone Star fund
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Key points
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The list of European governments raising the barricades against bank takeovers is enriched by a new case. This time it is Portugal that opposes the attempted takeover of Novo Banco, the fourth largest bank in the Lusitanian country, by the Spanish group Caixa Bank, which already has a presence in Lisbon controlling Bpi, Portugal's fifth largest group.
Already a few weeks ago, when the interest of Caixa first emerged in a concrete manner, Finance Minister Joaquim Sarmento had pointed out the executive's opposition to the operation, given that 'Spanish banks already represent about one third of the Portuguese banking market', adding that 'it is in the country's interest that there is no excessive dependence or concentration of our banking sector in the hands of a single country like Spain'. The Spanish giant Santander is also already present in Portugal in force.
The Times
.Then, last weekend, it emerged that both Spain's Caixa and the French group Bpce-Natixis had made formal offers to take over the 75 per cent of Novo Banco's capital held by the US private equity fund Lone Star.
By mid-June, the fund is expected to make the final decision on its exit strategy from the bank, choosing between what so far seemed to be the main hypothesis, i.e. listing on the stock exchange via an IPO, or selling the majority stake to a single bank.
Double track
.Both Novo Banco's top management and the Portuguese government would prefer the IPO, which would maintain the institution's autonomy and avoid combinations that seem undesirable at the moment.
