Banif bank shareholders faced a further 19% drop in value today to a new historic low. The bank led by Jorge Tomé now has lost 77.14% of its value and has a market capitalisation of just €150.3 million.
The shares just keep falling with investors apprehensive over the bank's ability to repay state aid of €825 million.
Wider concerns exist over the bank’s ability to survive at all with the EC having ‘major doubts’ about Banif’s ability to complete its restructuring plan as money keeps leaving the Madeiran institution and its retail business could hardly be referred to as profitable.
Banif’s management has hired boutique Spanish financial advisor N+1 to help define the future of the bank, part of the effort to find a private solution and to ensure the repayment of its debt to the state.
Earlier this week, the chairman of the bank's Board of Directors maintained that to "protect Banif is to protect taxpayers' money."
The Portuguese taxpayer became the largest shareholder, after the Bank of Portugal and the Passos Coelho government decided to bail out Banif in 2012.
The bank remains a tiny part of Portugal’s banking system but this does not stop it being a concern to the treasury which may call for a change of management if the restructuring fails to deliver the goods.
