Novo Banco to sell Macau unit

Portuguese banking group Novo Banco S.A (Novo Banco) has agreed on the sale of its Macau unit, Novo Banco Asia S.A. (Novo Banco Asia), to Hong Kong incorporated brokerage firm Well Link Group Holdings Limited, according to a group release on the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM).
Novo Banco Asia – formerly known as Banco Espirito Santo do Oriente (BESOR) – is the Macau subsidiary of Novo Banco, which was created after the collapse of its parent company Banco Espirito Santo (BES) in 2015.
The value of the purchase wasn’t revealed by the bank, and the deal is now pending approval by the Portugal Central Bank and the Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM).
In an interview with Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negócios in July of this year, Novo Banco’s former Chief Executive Officer, Eduardo Stock da Cunha stated that the sale of the Macau unit would probably reach higher values than the sale of the bank’s other units, since in Asia it is normal to “pay higher market multiples than those we can get in a small operation like Cape Verde or in a European unit”.
The bank’s headquarters in Portugal sent out a release assuring its branch employees in Macau that the new management would probably maintain the same structure since “the bank has always had positive results,” a bank source told Portuguese-language newspaper Ponto Final.
While its parent company in Portugal registered 981 million euros (MOP8.6 billion/US$1 billion) in losses in 2015, Novo Banco Asia generated MOP4.6 million (US$575,737) in profits last year.
In the first quarter of 2016, Novo Banco Asia, registered MOP80,859 in profit, while accumulating total revenue of MOP13.71 million and MOP13.65 million in costs, Business Daily reported previously.