Chinese group could end up controlling Novo Banco Ásia

Novo Banco Ásia is likely to be sold, together with Novo Banco, to one of the Chinese groups who have expressed interest in buying the bank.
Novo Banco is a result  of the restructuring  of  Banco Espírito Santo, once Portugal’s largest lender by market value. A rescue plan was put in motion to split the troubled financial institution into a “good bank” – renamed Novo Banco, housing healthy assets – and a “bad bank,” housing riskier assets.
BESOR, was established in Macau in the mid-90s. Its successor, Novo Banco Ásia, is considered a strategic asset by the Resolution Fund, a public body financed by contributions from the banking sector and by Treasury loans.
The Fund is set to complete the privatization of Novo Banco by the end of the first half of 2015.
“In Portugal, we decided that Novo Banco Ásia is a strategic asset and is not to be sold separately. The sale of Novo Banco will be made as a whole and not by splitting it,” the Resolution Fund administrator Vítor Fernando told Lusa when he visited Macau last month.
Novo Banco Ásia is expected to play a role in linking China to the Portuguese speaking countries and even to Latin America.
The Macau subsidiary of Novo Banco’s latest balance sheet was published in the Official Gazette last week, revealing a major deposit decrease that can be attributed to the Banco Espírito Santo turmoil.