In the aftermath of yet another Black Monday on the world’s stock exchanges, reports claim Chinese businesses active in Portugal saw more than €100 billion wiped off share prices overnight.
As China’s central bank cuts its main interest rate by 0.25 percentage points in a bid to halt the turmoil, papers in Portugal have been concentrating on who here has lost what.
In relative terms, Fosun – one of the key bidders in the ‘race’ to buy Novo Banco – has come out worse, writes Económico website, ironically depreciating by the same €4.9 billion figure that it cost to bail out Novo Banco in the aftermath of the Banco Espírito Santo (BES) debacle.
Fosun, which bought up Espírito Santo Saúde (renamed Luz Saúde), insurance company Fidelidade and energy network REN, is now worth (only) €9.8 billion, claims the news source.
In percentage terms, its loss on the Hong Kong stock exchange was 29.8%.
Meantime, the ICBC bank – Portugal’s first Chinese bank – has had to shoulder the “lion’s share” of Chinese losses nationally, and is therefore the greatest loser in “absolute terms”, claims Económico.
The bank which opened in Lisbon in 2012 has lost around €54 billion, while the Bank of China, which like ICBC is represented in Portugal, has lost €37.7 billion.
Next big loser is Haitong Securities – the group that bought out BESI (Espírito Santo International) which dropped €8.7 billion, reports Económico – depreciating in value by 22.61%.
