NOVO BANCO COULD BE VALUED AT AROUND 5 BLN EUROS, SOURCES SAY
By Sergio Goncalves and Elisa Martinuzzi
LISBON, Sept 9 (Reuters) -U.S. private equity firm Lone Star is considering a sale as well as an initial public offering of Novo Banco, Portugal's fourth-largest bank, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, potentially prompting more European banking consolidation.
Novo Banco was created in 2014 from the Portuguese government's bailout of collapsed private bank Banco Espirito Santo (BES). Since 2017 it has been 75%-owned by Lone Star, with the Portuguese resolution fund and the state owning the rest.
The bank is now worth around 5 billion euros ($5.55 billion) based on recent valuations, compared with around 1.3 billion euros in 2017, the three sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Lone Star, Novo Banco and a spokesperson for Portugal's resolution fund declined comment.
The move to weigh a complete sale rather than just an IPO comes as Novo Banco has completed a turnaround, which involved focusing solely on Portugal and becoming profitable.
By running a so-called dual track process, sellers typically seek to build competitive tension to reach the best price.
Among potential foreign buyers are Spanish banks already present in Portugal such as Santander SAN.MC and CaixaBank and French banks such as Credit Agricole and BPCE, two sources said.
However, there have been no formal discussions with any potential buyers, they added.
Santander, Caixabank, Credit Agricole and BPCE declined to comment.
An agreement between Lone Star, the resolution fund and the state to lift a ban on Novo Bank making dividend payouts, in place since the private equity firm bought its stake, could kick-start the sale in the coming months, the first source said.
A valuation of around 5 billion euros is around 7 times the earnings Novo Banco expects for 2024.
Novo Banco's first-half net profit slipped 1% to 370 million euros, as higher impairments and provisions countered a 13% rise in net interest income, or earnings on loans minus deposit costs, to 595 million euros.
Novo Banco has focused on offloading problematic exposures and its non-performing loans dropped to 4.1% of total loans in June versus 4.9% a year earlier and 28% in 2017.
($1 = 0.9003 euros)
Reporting by Sergio Goncalves and Elisa Martinuzzi; Additional reporting Jesus Aguado, Mathieu Rosemain and Valentina Za; Editing by Anousha Sakoui and Alexander Smith
Aset Terkait
Berita Terbaru
Pengungkapan: Entitas XM Group menyediakan layanan khusus eksekusi dan akses ke Fasilitas Trading Online kami, yang memungkinkan Anda untuk melihat dan/atau menggunakan konten yang tersedia pada atau melalui situs, yang tidak untuk mengubah atau memperluas, serta tidak mengubah atau memperluas hal tersebut. Akses dan penggunaan ini selalu sesuai dengan: (i) Syarat dan Ketentuan; (ii) Peringatan Risiko; dan (iii) Pengungkapan Penuh. Oleh karena itu, konten disediakan hanya sebagai informasi umum. Anda juga harus ketahui bahwa konten Fasilitas Trading Online kami bukan sebagai ajakan atau tawaran untuk untuk melakukan transaksi apa pun di pasar finansial. Trading di pasar finansial mana pun melibatkan tingkat risiko yang signifikan pada modal Anda.
Semua materi yang diterbitkan di Fasilitas Trading Online kami hanya untuk tujuan edukasi/informasi dan tidak boleh mengandung nasihat dan rekomendasi finansial, pajak investasi atau trading, catatan harga trading kami, penawaran, permintaan, transaksi dalam instrumen finansial apa pun atau promo finansial untuk Anda yang tidak diminta.
Konten pihak ketiga apa pun, serta konten yang disiapkan oleh XM, seperti opini, berita, riset, analisis, harga, informasi lain atau link ke situs pihak ketiga yang tersedia "sebagaimana adanya", sebagai komentar pasar umum dan bukan menjadi nasihat investasi. Sejauh konten apa pun ditafsirkan sebagai penelitian investasi, Anda harus memperhatikan dan menerima bahwa konten tersebut tidak dimaksudkan dan belum disiapkan sesuai dengan persyaratan hukum yang dirancang untuk mempromosikan kemandirian riset investasi dan dengan demikian akan dianggap sebagai komunikasi pemasaran di bawah hukum dan peraturan yang relevan. Mohon dipastikan bahwa Anda telah membaca dan memahami Notifikasi pada Riset Investasi Non-Independen dan Peringatan Risiko kami mengenai informasi di atas, yang dapat diakses disini.
