Portugal is opposed to further increase in the presence of Spanish banks

(Bloomberg) – The Portugal government said Spanish banks should not further increase their presence in the Portuguese market. Spanish money shooters now represent about a third of Portugal’s banking market, Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento said in an interview with television channel RTP3 on Wednesday night. “I think the value should not increase, due to a matter of concentration and dependence.” Novo Banco SA, a Portuguese bank owned by US private equity firm Lone Star, said he was preparing for a possible initial public offer. Bloomberg News reported on May 9 that Caixabank SA of Spain is among sugars investigating a possible procurement from Novo Banco, according to people who are familiar with the matter. Novo Banco, Portugal’s fourth largest money shooter, achieved his first profit in 2021 and his net interest income climbed as central banks raised interest rates. It previously had to cast assets and sell acidified debt to reduce its non-performing loan ratio, which was one of the highest in Europe after the bank came to the exposition of Banco Espirito Santo SA a decade ago. “The decision on Novo Banco is at Lone Star,” Sarmento said. “If Lone Star decides to sell, it will put the sale in the market, and the potential stakeholders will offer offers.” Spanish lenders Banco Santander SA and Caixabank are already one of the five largest banks in Portugal. “It seems to me that it is in the interests of the country that there is no excessive dependence, an excessive concentration in our banking sector in the hands of banks from a single country, as the case of Spain,” the finance minister said. Lone Star owns a 75% stake in Novo Banco, while Portugal owns 25% by entities, including the country’s Resolution Fund, run by the Bank of Portugal. Novo Banco CEO Mark Bourke said in an interview on May 6 that his bank was “well advanced” in setting up a prospectus for a possible bursary trading, which he wants to perform in early June. Finance Minister Sarmento said in January that Lone Star plans to sell a stake of about 25% to 30% of Novo Banco in an IPO. The minister also said that the government will not interfere if the state -run bank Caixa Geral de Depositos SA decides to judge any possible interest in the purchase of Novo Banco. “What I have always said is that if Caixa analyzes the market conditions and believes that it can make a proposal for Novo Banco on its own or with another bank, it will have to submit the proposal to the shareholder, and the shareholder will make a ruling on a concrete proposal on Wednesday night,” Sarmento said. Paulo Macedo, CEO of Caixa Geral de Depositos, said on February 27 that his bank was analyzing the possible acquisition of Novo Banco. Miguel Maya, CEO of Banco Comercial Portugues SA, said that his Bank-Portugal’s largest in public could analyze traded money shooter transactions when asked about Novo Banco, saying that his plans focused on ‘organic growth’. JB Capital said in a research report in March that it estimates that Novo Banco could be valued between € 5.5 billion ($ 6.2 billion) and € 7 billion. Novo Banco has about € 17 billion in corporate loans, € 10 billion in mortgage loans and € 2 billion to personal loans, according to a May 6. It has 1.7 million customers. Banco Espirito Santo, once Portugal’s largest lender according to the market value, received a rescue of around € 5 billion in 2014 after regulators ordered it to raise more capital after announcing potential losses on loans linked to companies in the family-controlled Espirito Santo group. The Portuguese central bank has shifted the deposits of the lender and most of its assets to Novo Banco. Lone Star then agreed to inject € 1bn into Novo Banco when it bought his stake in the bank in 2017. More stories like these are available on Bloomberg.com © 2025 Bloomberg LP