NOVO BANCO COULD BE VALUED AT AROUND 5 BLN EUROS, SOURCES SAY
By Sergio Goncalves and Elisa Martinuzzi
LISBON, Sept 9 (Reuters) -U.S. private equity firm Lone Star is considering a sale as well as an initial public offering of Novo Banco, Portugal's fourth-largest bank, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, potentially prompting more European banking consolidation.
Novo Banco was created in 2014 from the Portuguese government's bailout of collapsed private bank Banco Espirito Santo (BES). Since 2017 it has been 75%-owned by Lone Star, with the Portuguese resolution fund and the state owning the rest.
The bank is now worth around 5 billion euros ($5.55 billion) based on recent valuations, compared with around 1.3 billion euros in 2017, the three sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Lone Star, Novo Banco and a spokesperson for Portugal's resolution fund declined comment.
The move to weigh a complete sale rather than just an IPO comes as Novo Banco has completed a turnaround, which involved focusing solely on Portugal and becoming profitable.
By running a so-called dual track process, sellers typically seek to build competitive tension to reach the best price.
Among potential foreign buyers are Spanish banks already present in Portugal such as Santander SAN.MC and CaixaBank and French banks such as Credit Agricole and BPCE, two sources said.
However, there have been no formal discussions with any potential buyers, they added.
Santander, Caixabank, Credit Agricole and BPCE declined to comment.
An agreement between Lone Star, the resolution fund and the state to lift a ban on Novo Bank making dividend payouts, in place since the private equity firm bought its stake, could kick-start the sale in the coming months, the first source said.
A valuation of around 5 billion euros is around 7 times the earnings Novo Banco expects for 2024.
Novo Banco's first-half net profit slipped 1% to 370 million euros, as higher impairments and provisions countered a 13% rise in net interest income, or earnings on loans minus deposit costs, to 595 million euros.
Novo Banco has focused on offloading problematic exposures and its non-performing loans dropped to 4.1% of total loans in June versus 4.9% a year earlier and 28% in 2017.
($1 = 0.9003 euros)
Reporting by Sergio Goncalves and Elisa Martinuzzi; Additional reporting Jesus Aguado, Mathieu Rosemain and Valentina Za; Editing by Anousha Sakoui and Alexander Smith
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