Spanish bank launches takeover of Portugal's BPI

Spain’s CaixaBank has launched a takeover bid for Banco Português de Investimento (BPI) at €1.329 a share.

CaixaBank has launched the tender offer for Portugal’s high street lender, led by Fernando Ulrich, at a price that represents a 27% premium to Monday’s close.

CaixaBank already owns 44.29% of the voting rights and the 06.00 hrs announcement of today's bid saw the Securities Market Commission (CMVM) suspend trading in Banco BPI shares, "in order to enable investors to analyse the statement released to the market by the issuer."

Spain’s CaixaBank may have to find over a billion euros to complete the deal and take total control.

The offer is for the entire share capital, but CaixaBank needs only to control over 50% of the shares to gain control and force a buy-out of the remaining shares.

CaixaBank needs then to change the voting rules as at the moment is has only a 20% vote despite owning nearly 45% of the capital.

The launch of the tender offer is subject to approval by the European Central bank, the European Commission, the Insurance Supervisory Authority and the bank’s Pension Fund and a few other regulatory authorities.

According to the preliminary announcement this morning the share price was worked out by taking the average for the past six months which gives a healthy premium of 27% over the closing price of €1.043.

The Spanish bank expects the acquisition to generate savings €130 million in 2017, according to estimates by the managing director of CaixaBank, Gonzalo Gortázar.

According to Spanish newspaper El País, the operation is linked to an interest in the purchase of Novo Banco. The intention would be to merge this with the BPI, reducing costs and gaining efficiency, and thus creating the largest bank in Portugal with €120 billion of assets.

BPI is one of the banks in the Novo Banco race, which is now in its second phase. CaixaBank would be keen to beat Spain's Santander in the race for Novo Banco.

CaixaBank is one of the largest domestic financial institutions in Spain and since 2010 has bought five banks (Caixa Girona, Bankpyme, Banca Cívica, Banco de Valencia and the Barclays business in Spain).

If the takeover of BPI is successful this will be the first bank acquired by the CaixaBank outside of Spain.

CaixaBank is owned 19% by Isabel dos Santos (via Santoro), with the Allianz Group owning 8.4%.
BPI has about 22 000 shareholders, including many small investors.

BPI also owns a 50.1% stake in Banco Fomento de Angola (BFA), in which Isabel dos Santos also is a shareholder via Unitel which owns the remaining 49%.

You must be a registered user to make comments.
Please register here to post your comments.