Novo Banco today announced the successful €379 million sale of Banco Espírito Santo de Investimento (BESI) to Haitong, a Chinese company specialising in financial services.
In a statement sent to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM), Novo Banco said that the sale is of course "dependent on the necessary approval from the Bank of Portugal, the European Commission, the competition authorities and a number of other authorities exercising direct supervision over buyer."
The Bank of Portugal assumed control of BES on August 3, 2014, after BES announced staggering half-year losses of €3.6 billion, and proceeded to separate BES into two parts; the ‘bad bank’ to carry the toxic debt of BES, and ‘good bank’ Novo Banco which was given the more pleasant assets that it could sell off over time.
Novo Banco said that the sale of BESI has an estimated impact "of more than 50 basis points" on its Tier 1 capital ratio and stated last week that the consolidated assets of Novo Banco amount to €7.2465 billion, with a solvency ratio of 9.2%, a number that should now rise to at least 9.7%.
Haitong is a major securities company in China with substantial total and net assets, providing global financial services to more than 4.6 million clients.
