Novo Banco and Apax settle dispute over sale of GNB Vida

The chairman of the General and Supervisory Board of Novo Banco, Byron Haynes, denied the existence of a dispute with Apax, the buyer of GNB Vida, regarding a disagreement over the sale of the insurer. “The agreement already exists, it has already been sent to the Resolution Fund. This is the current situation concerning the dispute,” Byron Haynes said on Tuesday in parliament, in response to MP Hugo Carneiro (PSD) regarding a dispute of €14 million over the sale price of insurer GNB Vida, bought by Apax.

The head of Novo Banco was heard on Tuesday at the Parliamentary Eventual Commission of Inquiry into the losses recorded by Novo Banco and imputed to the Resolution Fund, a meeting that had simultaneous translation from English. “There is an agreement on the litigation, but as it is a CCA asset [covered by the contingent capitalisation agreement], that agreement has been sent to the Resolution Fund for their approval. They can approve it or not. If they don’t approve, we will try to conclude a new agreement,” he said.

Byron Haynes explained it is necessary to “ensure that not only are the bank and Apax happy with the agreement but that the Resolution Fund also signed it off.”

At the end of May, PSD deputy Hugo Carneiro had already revealed, at the hearing of former chairman of GNB Vida Paulo Vasconcelos, that Novo Banco asked the Resolution Fund for authorisation to return €14.3 million to Apax Partners. “The buyer of the company presented claims of €38.2 million regarding various situations of wrong information at the time of sale,” among others, which “generated a conflict with Novo Banco that led it to ask the Resolution Fund for authorisation to pay €14.3 million to the buyer,” the PSD deputy said on May 28.

The sale price of the insurer, initially, was €190 million plus 125 million variables, a figure that came down to 81 million plus variables. If the €14.3 million had already been paid to Apax, the ultimate sale price of GNB Vida would be €108.7 million plus variables, according to Carneiro, who said he had no information on whether the amount had already been paid.