BPI shareholders reject African asset split

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BPI shareholders reject African asset split

11:08 CAT | 08 Feb 2016

In file Club of Mozambique / Fernando Ulrich, BPI's Ceo.

Shareholders of BPI Portugal last Friday rejected the hiving off of the company’s African assets into a new company, a measure designed to address European Central Bank (ECB) requirements to reduce the bank’s exposure to Angola, reports Notícias.

The rejected project was presented by the bank’s management team and advised that a 50.1 percent stake in Banco de Fomento Angola, SA (in Angola), 30 percent of the Commercial Bank of Investment (BCI) and 100 percent in BPI Mozambique – Investment Company (in Mozambique) should be transferred over to a separate unit.

BPI’s shareholders gathered in Oporto, Portugal, to discuss and vote on the de-merger aimed at separating off operations in Africa, merging them into a new company and dispersing their capital on the stock exchange.

The aim of the solution presented by Fernando Ulrich was to comply with the rules of the European Central Bank (ECB) limiting large exposures such as BPI’s in Angola.

However, according to Lusa, a BPI statement sent to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission said that the general meeting “did not approve the BPI bank split, having not achieved the qualified majority of two thirds of the votes on which the approval depended”.

The proposed split obtained only 63.08 percent of vote.

The draft terms of division, in addition to shareholder approval, needed authorizations – including those of the ECB, confirming that the spin-off complies with the rules on large exposures – from the Bank of Portugal, Banco Nacional de Angola and Banco de Mozambique.

It would still have required the agreement of the Caixa General de Depósitos (CGD) due to fact that Mozambique BCI is owned by both BPI and CGD, as well as a prior agreement of Unitel, due to the shareholders’ agreement between BPI and the Angolan operator for sharing the Angolan BFA property. Unitel, which is owned 25 percent by Isabel dos Santos, holds 49.9 percent of BFA.

Source: Club of Mozambique