Lone Star refuses to disclose Novo Banco sale, capitalisation contracts

Nani Holdings, a shareholder in Novo Banco linked to Lone Star, on Friday refused to publicly disclose the sale contracts and contingent capitalisation of the bank, according to a letter sent to parliament.

In a letter sent to the parliamentary commission of enquiry into Novo Banco, to which Lusa had access, Nani Holdings “regrets to inform that it cannot grant the requested lifting of confidentiality, and that the contracts will remain confidential and will be treated as confidential.”

The request to lift confidentiality, respecting restrictions regarding the name of Novo Banco’s debtors and matters of commercial secrecy, had been made by the PSD parliamentary group.

Following this response from the shareholder that owns 75 percent of Novo Banco, PSD MP Alberto Fonseca, during the parliamentary hearing of former Bank of Portugal governor Vítor Constâncio, considered the stance of Nani Holdings to be “deeply regrettable”.

Alberto Fonseca took the opportunity to question Vítor Constâncio on whether he did not believe that the contract should be made public.

“I admit that there are always aspects of a confidential commercial nature, reflected in the contract, that should be crossed out,” said the former vice-president of the European Central Bank.

“Apart from this aspect, I think that the contract, on Portugal’s side, could be made public,” he added.

Alberto Fonseca said that “Nani Holdings prefers to continue to maintain this regime of non-transparency and disregard for the Portuguese, which only further increases the distrust of the Portuguese in this sale deal.

The deputy also said that the party will not “give up this disclosure,” which he believes to be “more than legitimate, because the PSD has a bill that requires the disclosure of contracts that has already been approved in generality.