Spain's Caixabank in plans to acquire Dos Santos stake in BPI

 

Spain's Caixabank is in plans to acquire Angolan investor Isabel dos Santos stake in Portugal's Banco BPI SA, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Caixabank, which is in talks with Dos Santos for her roughly 21% stake, may reach an agreement over the coming days, the multimedia news agency said, citing sources.

A hold on this stake would give the Spanish bank, which is already a top shareholder in BPI with a 44.1% stake, a chance to make an offer for all of BPI.

Isabel Dos Santos, the daughter of Angola's long-serving president, is BPI's second-largest shareholder who last year fended off a takeover bid for BPI by Caixabank.

However, no final decision has been made and talks between Caixabank and the Angolan investor could still fall apart, Bloomberg added.

BPI has been looking to spin-off its African assets, a move that was opposed by Dos Santos, which also received a rejection from its shareholders last month.

The proposal failed to garner the required two-thirds of the votes at the meeting, where the largest shareholder, Caixabank, was unable to use its full 44.1% voting stake due to a statutory cap on voting rights of 20%.

BPI's board said last month it will call a new shareholder meeting to vote on eliminating the voting rights cap, although a previous attempt to scrap the cap last year failed.

Caixabank declined to comment. Portugal's BPI SA could not be reached immediately for comment outside regular business hours.

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