Lisbon, Jan. 30, 2025 (Lusa) - BPI's executive chairman said on Thursday that any move to buy Novo Banco would always be decided by the shareholder, CaixaBank, which today said it was focused on organic growth in Portugal.
"If anything happens regarding a move, the shareholder will always decide. [...] As of today, I have no mandate to decide," João Pedro Oliveira e Costa said at the press conference to present the 2024 accounts, the year in which the bank made record profits of €588 million.
He said that CaixaBank had made acquisitions - that "consolidation moves are no stranger to Caixabank" - and considered that it has done so "very successfully", but that for now, there is nothing on Novo Banco.
Regarding Novo Banco's main shareholder, Lone Star's decision to disperse part of its capital on the stock exchange (through an IPO—Initial Public Offering), he said that this option had reduced attention on the subject, including from other competitors.
"I think that because of this [the IPO], the issue of selling or not selling Novo Banco has greatly diminished in the market. It's faded a bit," he said.
Today, at a press conference in Spain to present the CaixaBank group's results (profits of €5.787 billion), the group's CEO said they were focused on growing without acquisitions in Portugal.
"We are not contemplating any growth operation other than purely organic growth in Portugal. We want BPI to continue to grow organically and without acquisitions," said Gortázar.
Novo Banco, which took over part of Banco Espírito Santo's (BES) banking business following the 2014 resolution, has the Lone Star fund as its majority shareholder, with 75% of the capital, the remaining 25% being divided between the Resolution Fund and the Directorate-General for Treasury and Finance.
Lone Star is analysing the possible distribution of the Portuguese bank's capital on the stock exchange. According to Bloomberg, it has hired Deutsche Bank as a consultant to advise on negotiations with potential buyers.
The early end of Novo Banco's contingent capitalisation agreement (CCA) at the end of last year allowed Lone Star to consider these scenarios and receive dividends (it is estimated that it could distribute up to €1.3 billion in dividends).
The CCA was negotiated during Novo Banco's purchase by the Lone Star Fund in 2017. Under it, the Resolution Fund invested more than €3 billion in the bank.
BPI announced today that it had a record profit of €588 million in 2024 ("the highest ever", according to the CEO), 12% more than in 2023.
The bank is owned by Spanish banking group CaixaBank, which today reported profits in Spain of €5.787 billion in 2024 (20.2% higher than the previous year).
IM/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
