Novo Banco polyglots are manning a stand at the Lisbon property fair, charged with shifting €500 million of real estate using loan offers tailored to foreign buyers.
The fair, which started today and runs until Saturday, sees Novo Banco aiming to "streamline its real estate supply, mainly for foreign customers, taking into account the bank’s target to sell more than €500 million in 2016."
For mortgages, the bank said that, "the novelty will be an offer for foreign customers with the main benefits being fixed rate mortgages which often are highly valued by this type of customer, and dealing with customers in their own language" with business managers "fluent in French, English and Mandarin."
As for the future of the bank itself, there are several potential buyers with the late-comer, China’s Minsheng Financial Holding disrupting an earlier bidding process adhered to by BCP, BPI, Loan Star and Apollo-Centerbridge.
Regading Minsheng’s late appearance, the State Secretary for Finance and Treasury, Ricardo Mourinho Felix, told Reuters, “This is positive because it creates buying pressure on the asset and pressure on the four contenders."
Felix said there have been several requests for privileged information about Novo Banco and that Minsheng has been confirmed as one of the possible buyers.
The Bank of Portugal has been studying various options to offload Novo Banco, including a direct sale to a single bidder and by offering shares to more than one financial institution.
This 'joint sale' solution may raise more money for the Resolution Fund and the taxpayer which between them stumped up billions to establish Novo Banco in the Banco Espírito Santo rescue of August 2014.
The Bank of Portugal expects final bids to be submitted as soon as the original four bidders have received ‘confirmatory due diligence’ on the Novo Banco. This should be by the end of October which is the highly flexible target date for the new owner, or owners, of Novo Banco to be announced.
Mourinho Felix admitted for the first time that the repayment of the €4.25 billion owed to the Resolution Fund would “most likely” be spread over 25 to 30 years." This leaves a question mark over the €1 billion owed to the taxpayer, a sum that the prime minister guaranteed would be repaid when Novo Banco is sold.
As for the late bid from Minsheng, currently being entertained by the Bank of Portugal, Mourinho Felix said this is positive, “in that it obviously puts pressure on the current four candidates who are currently in discussions with the Bank of Portugal."
