Trading in BPI halted as Caixa Bank mulls bid
Updated : 11:00
A trading halt was placed on shares in Portugal´s BPI amid reports that Spain´s Caixa Bank would meet next week to consider a complete takeover.
A report earlier in the day cited Reuters as saying that Barcelona-based Caixa would analyse moving forward with a bid when its board meets next Thursday.
On 17 June shareholders in BPI fell short of the three-quarters of votes needed to approve a motion to scrap voting rights – one of the conditions the Spanish lender had demanded – garnering just 52.45% in support of its plans.
BPI was asked to do away with the rule limiting a single investor´s voting rights to 20%.
In February Caixa offered as much as €1.1bn for the 56% it does not already own in its rival in neighbouring Portugal.
Isabel dos Santos, the Angolan investor who holds 19% of BPI´s equity, the second largest stake in the portuguese bank, had asked for the above vote. She is known to oppose a deal with Caixa, prefering instead a combination with BCP, Portugal´s second largest bank.
Portugal´s market regulator CMVM said it decided to halt trading pending relevant information from the company.
As of 11:00 shares in Madrid-listed Caixa Bank were off by just 0.33% to €4.26 per share.