The sale of the Portuguese insurance company Tranquildade to the US insurer Apollo may have to be aborted due to an injunction issued by the review judge Eurico Reis.
The suspension of the sale was known by Novo Banco management on Tuesday, 23 December but it has not revealed who filed the injunction and on what grounds.
Novo Banco has been trying to reach agreement to extend the transaction date beyond the current deadline of December 31 when it will fall through anyway.
The deal to sell Tranquilidade was announced on 16 September with terms that included Novo Banco receiving €44 million up front with Apollo agreeing later to inject €150 million to restore the insurer to full financial strength.
Tranquilidade insurance was owned by Espírito Santo Financial Group but was pledged as security. This has interrupted play as Grupo Espirito Santo is demanding the cash from any sale or it will go to court.
Comments
This is the Portuguese elite blocking the sale of one of their crown jewels. As with the horseplay around TAP.
What will be particularly interesting is when the foreigners, like the Luxembourgers, get their injunction to unravel the entire BES into Novo Banco process.
Returning it all to GES / BES ?
Then factor in the foreign vulture funds lining up to take their bite out whatever is going past them. It does not even have to be at fresh - as we know with them chasing Argentine debt 10 years after the event.
Debt with sky high additional interest now tacked on for time wasting.
And a need to prove to the world that Portugal must be and will be punished for ever thinking it can have a different 'Portuguese Way' of doing things.
If you let one country do things their way you have let everyone else !