... but only for Novo Banco senior management, following the example set by Chief Executive Stock da Cunha who from now will struggle along on €320,000 a year.
Due to the indefinite postponement of the sale of the bank, the senior managers and board are ‘making some adjustments’ to their pay starting with a reduction in their salaries.
Various assets that were transferred to Novo Banco from Banco Espírito Santo when it was rescued by the Bank of Portugal also are to be sold off, much to the despair of many BES creditors who have seen all the saleable parts of BES slip under the fence to Novo Banco to their distinct financial disadvantage.
Stock da Cunha’s fellow board members will see their pay cut from €300,000 to €240,000, down to just €20,000 a month for their labours.
More importantly, with the rise in property values in the last year, Novo Banco is to start selling off the assets it was handed on a plate, some €3.4 billion worth at current valuations.
This is part of a restructuring plan to ‘optimise the balance sheet’ for when the bank sale is relaunched sometime this century.
Novo Banco intends 'to focus on its core banking business' and dispose of non-strategic assets that it was given by the Bank of Portugal when governor Carlos Costa was forming his 'good bank:bad bank' idea.
A 40% stake in road toll company Ascendi is on offer as is its 37% stake in ports company Tertir.
In fact the banks property assets are valued at €3.4 billion, an increase of €675 million over the end of 2014 and plenty there to make good the losses of the ripped-off BES depositors, Goldman Sachs and others who are having to drag the Bank of Portugal and Novo Banco through the courts to get satisfaction.
News of a senior management incentive scheme to make good the salary cut has not been announced.
