Portugal’s Economy Minister has praised Novo Banco boss Stock da Cunha while distancing himself and the government from a sale timetable, "It is not for the Government to conduct" the sale of the bank.
Pires de Lima said today that he expects the administration of Novo Banco to complete the sale of the institution during 2015.
Far from a hands-off approach, the haste of the government to sell Novo Banco has been felt in Spain. The governor of the Bank of Portugal spend the weekend there to talk to several Spanish financial institutions about the sale of Novo Banco.
The governor, Carlos Costa, met the heads of various of the main Spanish banks to determine their interest levels in Novo Banco while the Economy Minster was in London persuading his audience that the government was putting no pressure at all on the new management to get an early sale.
Pires de Lima considers Novo Banco’s CEO, Eduardo Stock da Cunha as "the kind of person who is able to fulfill two missions: to continue in the market and pave the way to the bank be sold within a reasonable period, i.e. during 2015."
Pires de Lima distanced himself from the BES debacle and stressed that "the Government will not drive" the process of selling the Novo Banco.
"The Portuguese Government is monitoring events closely because there is an impact on the economy, but it is not we who make decisions, that is for the Bank of Portugal", he said, as if the Bank of Portugal acts independently of the government.
The minister was responding to questions during a conference organised by Euromoney magazine about the recovery of the Portuguese economy, which, he admitted, was impacted by the "magnitude" of the BES collapse.
The Spanish newspaper Cinco Días contacted several Spanish financial entities and reports that after the visit by the governor of the bank of Portugal this weekend he left them in no doubt that Portuguese government representatives and Portuguese investment firms are working towards a quick sale.
The Spanish media has no doubt that the Portuguese government has issued orders to accelerate the sale of Novo Banco, although it does not hazard a guess as to why.