Novobanco hires Linklaters as legal adviser for IPO
The law firm led by Marcos Sousa Monteiro will provide legal support to the bank in the operation to list on the stock exchange, which is scheduled for May.
Novobanco is preparing to go public, having received a “formal indication” from its largest shareholder last week. The financial institution led by Mark Bourke has already hired the financial advisors to set up the operation — Bank of America, Deustche Bank and JPMorgan Chase — and has now also chosen a legal advisor: Linklaters.
Officially, the bank didn’t comment on the hiring of Linklaters, but the law firm itself — whose office in Portugal is headed by Marcos Sousa Monteiro — confirmed to ECO that it is “acting for Novobanco on the IPO issue”.
The US fund Lone Star has already authorised Novobanco to start preparations for the IPO. The operation could take place as early as May or as late as September, if market conditions allow. On the table is the sale of a block of shares corresponding to between 25% and 30% of the bank’s capital, depending on the stake held by each of the shareholders.
Lone Star holds 75% of the share (acquired in 2017 in exchange for an injection of 1 billion into Novobanco), while the remaining 25% is held by the Portuguese state, through the Resolution Fund (13.54%) and the Directorate-General for Treasury and Finance (12.46%).
The process of selling Novobanco accelerated at the end of last year, following the early end of the contingent capital mechanism (CCA) in December, which normalised the bank’s situation and unblocked dividends.
Novobanco is due to distribute around 1.3 billion euros to shareholders, a payment that should be approved at the next general shareholders’ meeting.
The bank will present its 2024 results on 6 March. For the nine months until September, the financial institution recorded profits of 610.4 million euros. It had a net worth of around five billion euros, a figure that will serve as a benchmark for the sale process.
JB Capital has evaluated Novobanco at between 4.8 billion and 6.2 billion euros and would not rule out a sale to another bank which, if it already operates in Portugal, could result in synergies of between 500 million and 1,000 million euros.
In May 2023, Linklaters appointed Marcos Sousa Monteiro as the firm’s managing partner in Portugal. The corporate lawyer succeeds António Soares, who led the British firm in Lisbon for seven years. Marcos Sousa Monteiro has been with Linklaters since 2003 and was elected partner of the firm in 2015.
