By Sergio Goncalves
LISBON (Reuters) – Santander’s Portuguese bank is not interested in buying Novo Banco, its CEO Pedro Castro Almeida said on Friday, as its strategy will be to focus on organic growth.
Almeida said in November that Santander Totta could consider a potential acquisition of Novo Banco, depending on price.
“We don’t want to buy Novo Banco … we follow what is happening in the market, present and future, (and) our strategy involves organic growth”, Castro Almeida was quoted by economic news service ECO as telling reporters.
U.S. fund Lone Star, which owns 75% of Novo Banco, was mulling an IPO or a full sale, worth about 5 billion euros ($5.21 billion), which could lead to a merger with another bank in Portugal, sources with knowledge of the matter have said.
Novo Banco was created in 2014 as a result of a government bailout of collapsed Banco Espirito Santo. Portugal’s resolution fund and the state hold the remaining 25% stake.
Bank of Portugal Governor Mario Centeno told Reuters on Wednesday that a Novo Banco IPO would be beneficial for Portugal’s banking sector, but urged a cautious approach to any further consolidation so as not to jeopardise results achieved in terms of capital, liquidity and costs.
Portugal’s top five banks, which also include state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos (CGD), Millennium bcp and Caixabank’s Banco BPI, control more than 80% of its banking assets, but analysts see room for further consolidation.
Novo Banco’s board, however, says the bank would be better off as a standalone lender.
Millennium bcp CEO Miguel Maya has said his bank could analyse buying Novo Banco if it were at the right price and created value, but the priority is to remunerate shareholders.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Andrei Khalip and Alexander Smith)
