Workers do not oppose the sale provided that jobs are guaranteed
The Novobanco Workers Commission stated that “there is no objections to the sales process” of the financial institution provided that the bank’s jobs and independence are guaranteed, considering that this alienation “may be a positive solution, not only for workers and customers, but also to the national financial system”, saying that he saw with “pleased the first statements of the BPCE Group CEO, Nicolas Namias, giving current warranties of posts work ».
This is the reaction of workers after being revealed on Friday that Lone Star signed a memorandum of understanding to sell their position to the BPCE, as an amount equivalent to an appreciation of approximately 6.4 billion, at the end of 2025, to 100% of the capital. The completion of the transaction is expected to occur during the first half of 2026.
However, the workers’ committee has admitted that it saw the capital’s dispersion in the stock capital with better eyes, “allowing interested workers to acquire shares at a preferential price” and now promises that it will “closely follow” the entire sales process.
Also the Ministry of Finance applauded the operation, stating that « guarantees the maintenance of the current structure of the national banking market, without problems resulting from a possible concentration process, namely a restructuring, and safeguard the competition levels in the Portuguese banking system. » And revealed that the state will recover almost two billion euros from the injected public funds in the novobanco, associated with the distribution of dividends of the financial institution.
The resolution fund that owns 13.54% of the financial institution’s capital has already done the math and said it will get a “gross fit of about 866 million euros” with the sale of the institution to the French BPCE. This amount is added to the funds already received from Novobanco as distribution of dividends related to the results of 2024, in a gross value of 30 million euros, and in the scope of capital reduction held in 2025, which allowed a fit of 149 million euros. « The values obtained and to be obtained by the Resolution Fund as a result of their participation in Novo Banco allow us to recover part of the funds spent by the resolution fund in Banco Espírito Santo resolution and will be used in the reimbursement of the resolution fund’s debt, namely before the State, » he explained.
