Monteiro gets contract extension to handle Novo Banco sale

Sérgio Monteiro has been given three month contract extension to lead the Novo Banco sale process.

The Bank of Portugal already has paid Monteiro €304,000 to front the sale negotiations but the consultant is to stay on until January 2017 even though final offers have to be submitted by November 4th and a decison expected soon thereafter.

Monteiro's well-paid consultancy contract ended today with many still wondering why someone had to be brought in specifically to deal with the sale process which is part of the Bank of Portugal’s remit.

One reason is for the Bank of Portugal governor Carlos Costa to distance himself from the sale as the €4.9 billion needed to recoup the money he threw at creating a 'good bank' from the wreckage of BES in a misguided ‘rescue’ operation, will never be achieved. Losses of several billion can be expected with bidders going in low for the loss-making bank.

Those in the frame are Portuguese banks BPI and BCP, Apollo-Centerbridge, Lone Star and more recently, Minsheng Financial Holdings with advice from Haotong Bank run by Espíito Santo family member José Maria Ricciardi.

Sergio Monteiro, the Secretary of State for Infrastructure under the Passos Coelho administration, has been leading the talks with the five candidates and with European authorities who will need to give to go-ahead to the final choice to be made by Monteiro, even though he is only a consultant to the process, with the Bank of Portugal again taking a step backwards.
 
Monteiro’s contract extension will cost €76,200 and if the contract for his services are extended until April 30, which seem likely, the additional cost to the taxpayer  will be €152,400 for work that should have been done in house.

City wags suggested that the consultancy contract and the sale could continue until such time as Monteiro had saved up enough to buy Novo Banco himself.

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