Lisbon, July 9, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal's Novo Banco has registered the change in its share capital to €3,345,000,000.30, following the reallocation of free reserves for "loss absorption", and the move of the bank's head office to Taguspark.

In a statement sent to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM) on Monday evening, Novo Banco said that "the change in its share capital is registered with the Commercial Registry Office, which amounts to €3,345,000,000.30, represented by 500,000,000 book-entry, nominative shares with no par value".

On 7 June, Novo Banco informed the market that the shareholders had decided at a general meeting to reorganise the bank's share capital, reallocating free reserves in the amount of €5 billion "to absorb losses".

As part of this operation, the share capital was reduced from €6.6bn to €3.2bn, "to cover negative retained earnings of €2.870.294.596,73 and to strengthen legal reserves by €481.221.983,27″.

This reduction was followed by an increase in share capital to €3,345,000,000.30, "this increase being made by incorporating the special reserve created by reference to the underlying deferred tax assets".

These changes in share capital were accompanied by a reduction in the number of shares representing the share capital, from 11,611,327,275 to 500 million, with the Resolution Fund exercising its rights and assuming ownership of these shares.

In the statement now sent to the CMVM, Novo Banco said it had also registered the institution's new head office with the Commercial Registry Office, which is now in Taguspark, in Oeiras.

The change of headquarters had already been announced for the second half of this year, following the sale of the former headquarters of Banco Espírito Santo (BES) in the centre of Lisbon, which generated a capital gain of €67 million in 2022, and had, according to Novo Banco's 2023 report and accounts, a cost of €46.8 million.

PD/ADB // ADB.

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