Novo Banco: solution to be presented until Christmas will either be Chinese or American
The China Minsheng, Lone Star and Apollo/Centerbridge funds have theirs proposals, which comply with the requisites made by the Bank of Portugal; now all that is left to see is which will be chosen.
The Bank of Portugal wants to announce the buyer of Novo Banco by Christmas and there are three names on the running, according to the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negócios, quoting sources from the sector. The China Minsheng Financial and the North-American fund Lone Star should have the proposals that most correspond to Novo Banco’s needs, and the Portuguese banks’ offers are off the table. However, the consortium of the North-American private equities Apollo and Centerbridge is also on the running.
According to Portuguese newspaper Público, the China Minsheng Financial Group offer is to take 100% of Novo Banco through a capital increase, meaning they will hold 50% of shares, and have the remaining shares in the stock market for the following two years. As for Lone Star, they will fully own Novo Banco if they can choose the assets. Both comply with the criterion the Bank of Portugal imposed, which was that Novo Banco had to be retrieved from its bridge bank statute.
The news disclosed by Público meet what was said by Marques Mendes, on his weekly commentary this Sunday night on the Portuguese TV channel SIC; the politician said the offers made by the Portuguese banks BCP and BPI “are, technically, off the table”, since they are not competitive enough. Marques Mendes considers the offer made by China Minsheng “financially stronger”.
The newspaper Jornal de Negócios also states that Apollo/Centerbridge, Lone Star and the China Minsheng Group still have several negotiating sessions scheduled throughout this week with the team in charge of the sale of Novo Banco.
Novo Banco sells their Wembley stadium assets
The same newspaper also discloses that Novo Banco is selling several non-strategic assets by means of a side bank – those assets include an exposure on the London stadium Wembley and a shareholder position in a North-American highway.
Last week, in the Casablanca stock exchange, Novo Banco announced the sale of their 2.5% shareholder position in the bank BMCE for 83 million euros.
