Chinese group Anbang Insurance offers 3.5b euros to buy Novo Banco

Chinese group Anbang Insurance has offered 3.5 billion euros to buy Portuguese bank Novo Banco, which represents a loss of 1.4 billion euros to the bank’s Resolution Fund, Portuguese daily financial newspaper Diário Económico reported Tuesday.
The group was selected by the Bank of Portugal for final negotiations in the process of selling Novo Banco, the bank that inherited the healthy business activity of Banco Espírito Santo (BES) after the collapse of the Espírito Santo Group (GES).
The revised proposal from the Chinese group also includes the possibility of carrying out a capital increase in Novo Banco to improve the Portuguese bank’s financial ratios.
Completion of the sale of Novo Banco for 3.5 billion euros will result in a loss of 1.4 billion euros for the resolution fund, which spent 4.9 billion euros on bailing out Banco Espírito Santos (BES), transforming it into Novo Banco and maintaining on-going operations.
The Resolution Fund was financed not only with Portuguese state capital but also with contributions from 80 banks and private Portuguese financial companies.
As well as the Anbang Insurance Group, Chinese group Fosun International and US fund Apollo Global Management were involved in the process to acquire Novo Banco. MDT/Macauhub