Difficulties facing Chinese nationals wanting to move money out of China are now holding up the already much-delayed sale of Novo Banco.
The Bank of Portugal hoped to ‘seal the deal’ (despite the fact that its terms will be vastly reduced from initial expectations) by Christmas. This now no longer looks doable, say reports – even though ‘chosen purchasers’ the Minsheng Group are still reportedly “trying to assemble promissory letters”.
Jornal Económico goes as far as to call the Chinese, “the new Angolans” – another country with a firm lid on outgoing financial transfers. But the reality is that the delay changes very little: Novo Banco has until August 2017 to be ‘sold’, and the longer the bottom line loss to the country’s banks (making up the Resolution Fund) remains shrouded in confusion, the better for BdP boss Carlos Costa and all the others involved who might like to go home for Christmas without having to deal with another major scandal.
