Dec
19
Venezuela’s Banesco Group will
acquire control of NCG Banco SA for 1 billion euros ($1.37
billion) as Spain lines up buyers for banks rescued under last
year’s European-funded bailout.
Through its Spanish Banco Etcheverria unit, Banesco,
controlled by billionaire Juan Carlos Escotet, will also buy two
portfolios of written-off loans, Spain’s bank rescue fund said
in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Etcheverria said in its own
statement that its bid didn’t include any request for state aid.
The sale of 88.3 percent of NCG Banco to Banesco is a step
forward for Spain as it seeks buyers for lenders nationalized
under the 41 billion-euro bailout that prevented mounting losses
at savings banks from overwhelming government finances. NCG
Banco has 57 billion euros of assets and 672 branches, and was
formed from a merger of savings banks in the region of Galicia.
It needed 9.1 billion euros of aid to replenish its capital.
The bank rescue fund, known as FROB, had said on Dec. 16
that it received six binding bids for NCG Banco. Because Banesco
beat the next-best offer by at least 200 million euros and 50
percent, a second round of bids wasn’t necessary, FROB said.
Banesco will pay 40 percent of the price when the sale closes
and the rest in stages through 2018.
Spain’s next asset sale will be Catalunya Banc, a
nationalized lender that needed total capital support of 12.1
billion euros.
Banesco Venezuela
NCG Banco earned 61 million euros in the first nine months
of this year, following an 8 billion-euro full-year loss in
2012. Banco Etcheverria said in a filing yesterday that it would
keep the majority of NCG’s branches.
Escotet said on his Twitter account today that he would
maintain NCG Banco’s focus on the northwestern Galicia region
and its workers. He controls 58.9 percent of Banesco in
Venezuela and has a fortune of $1.1 billion, according to the
Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Banesco is one of three biggest banks in Venezuela in terms
of assets, deposits and loans, according to the November report
from Caracas-based Softline Consultores. It has opened branches
in Panama, the U.S., Colombia, Curacao and the Dominican
Republic. Banesco bought 70 percent of Banco Etcheverria in
December 2012.
Banesco holds more than 207 billion bolivars ($32.8
billion) in assets in Venezuela, according to Softline. It is
second only in the country to Banco de Venezuela SA, which
former President Hugo Chavez expropriated from Spain’s Banco
Santander SA in 2009.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Charles Penty in Madrid at
cpenty@bloomberg.net;
Corina Pons in Caracas at
crpons@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Frank Connelly at
fconnelly@bloomberg.net
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