Novo Banco CEO doesn’t expect political crisis to affect sale  

The CEO of Novo Banco said on Thursday that he didn’t expect any impact from the political crisis in Portugal on the process of selling the bank, which is majority owned by Lone Star and in which the Portuguese state holds a 25% stake.

In the conference call with analysts that journalists were able to attend (the bank doesn’t hold press conferences), Mark Bourke said that whether the PS or PSD is in government, they both practise ‘policies that are very conservative in budgetary terms and solid in economic terms’, so he expects any talks about selling Novo Banco, whether it’s going public or selling outright, to happen ‘without hindrance’.

‘We hope that this will essentially continue to be the case,’ Mark Bourke, the Irish manager at the helm of Novo Banco since 2022, told analysts regarding the political crisis and possible early parliamentary elections.

Novo Banco announced today that it made a profit of 744.6 million euros in 2024, just 0.2% more than in 2023.

Although profits only increased by 1.5 million euros the net results for 2024 are the highest ever for the bank created in 2014 to take over part of BES’s business.

In the information to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM), Novo Banco also announced that a dividend of 224.6 million euros will be proposed to the general meeting of shareholders (the Lone Star fund owns 75% of the bank and the Portuguese state 25%).

In the strategic update document released today, the bank says it has ‘’€3.3 billion of capital available for distribution over the next three years‘’.

Speaking to analysts, Bourke explained that, in addition to the 224.6 million to be paid out this year, the bank intends to pay a special dividend of 1.1 billion as soon as it receives authorisation from the European Central Bank (ECB) to reduce its capital. A further 2.2 billion will be paid out over the next three years (conditional on profitability and capital ratios).

When it was resolved, Novo Banco was set up in 2014 to take over part of Banco Espírito Santo’s (BES) banking business.

The bank is 75% owned by the US investment fund Lone Star, with the remaining 25% owned by the Portuguese state (directly and indirectly).

It is public knowledge that Lone Star already wants to sell part of Novo Banco, with the public goal of dispersing capital on the stock exchange (25% to 30%). However, a direct sale is not ruled out either.

In any case, Lone Star needs commitments from the Portuguese state, since it owns 25% of Novo Banco and can also sell part of its position.