Santander and Millennium BCP have tempered their earlier enthusiasm having analysed the figures and have decided not to bid for Novo Banco, but the Bank of Portugal has received four binding proposals, not that it will say who these are from.
The offers for Novo Banco, the bridge bank ‘resolution’ to the August 2014 collapse of Banco Espírito Santo, will be considered "in the light of the eligibility and selection criteria set out in the specifications."
The Bank of Portugal explained it will be carefully looking at the financial and marketing proposals from the four bidders before deciding whether to sell off the stake held by its Resolution Fund.
It is known within Lisbon’s financial circles that Santander and Millennium BCP did not submit offers by today's deadline at 17:00.
The last time that Novo Banco was on the block, with ‘unquantifiable liabilities’, Santander, BPI and Apollo made offers but only Apollo, Fosun and Anbang got to the final talks which were aborted by Bank of Portugal governor Carlos Costa. The money on the table was several billions below what he needed to repay investors forced into the BES bailout.
If the offers again are embarrassingly below the €4.9 billion that Costa needs, he again can pull the plug and may go to plan B with a stock market flotation.
This plan B, post Brexit, may not now be possible as the information presented to the Stock Market Commission about Novo Banco’s suitability as a publicly listed company was not considered sufficient.
António Costa is committed to selling the bank before the end of August this year, this is that date he agreed with the European Commission.
The Bank of Portugal two highly paid advisors to help it run the sales process but neither is on a results-based payment scheme.
Deustsche Bank, currently suffering a share price drop that suggests it is close to collapse, has been acting as financial advisor and Sérgio Monteiro, the former Secretary of State for Public Works, has been struggling by on €25,000 a month trying to drum up some buyers for the bank that has had over €2 billion of liabilities swept away but has failed to slim down or make a trading profit since it was created.
