Problems assailing the Grupo Espírito Santo and impacting on the country’s BES bank have prompted Spanish bankers at BBVA to pull-out of their much-publicised bailout from Portugal.
According to Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, BBVA has cancelled plans to sell its Portuguese operation “due to the turbulence caused by the problems surrounding BES”.
Whether this is a long-term decision remains to be seen. Certainly BBVA boss Francisco González has said offers for the bank’s Portuguese operation have been “insufficient” this far, and the chaos generated by the latest BES scandal has done nothing to improve negotiations.
BBVA’s pull-out of Portugal – prompted by record losses last year – was pipped at the post by Barclays Bank in May, which announced its scaling back of international operations.
Since then, BBVA has been in negotiations with a number of banks, including Angolan groups BIC and Banco Atlântico, but the favourite – until this latest announcement -was thought to be Portugal’s Crédito Agricola.
According to El Confidencial, the price BBVA had on the table was in the region of 500 million euros.
For now, though, it will be ‘business as usual’ for the bank’s 80 outlets employing 750 people as all eyes in the financial world stay focused on develops at beleaguered BES.
