Six financial institutions have presented offers for the Portuguese government's 60.5 percent stake in troubled local bank Banif, the lender said late on Friday soon after the deadline for bidding expired. The small Madeira-based bank, which has a market capitalisation of 91 million euros ($98 million) and deposits of 6 billion euros, said in a statement the six bids "will now be carefully analysed by the bank and by the Portuguese state" before the winner is picked. It did not name the bidders.
A source familiar with the process said Spain's biggest bank Santander was among the lenders that put in an offer. Santander declined to comment. Sources close to the process had said previously that Spain's Banco Popular. was pondering a bid, and US investment fund Apollo has also been named among potential bidders.
Separately on Friday, Banif said it agreed to sell its 78.6 percent stake in BanifBank in Malta for 18.4 million euros, pending approval by European authorities overseeing Banif's restructuring. On Thursday, Portugal's securities market regulator CMVM suspended trading in Banif shares, which had jumped sharply in the last few days, rebounding from huge losses earlier.
The chief executive of Banif has said he is confident of finding a buyer by the end of the year for the stake in the bank. Banif is in need of a recapitalisation after being unable to pay back loans injected by the government during Portugal's debt crisis. The state took the stake in Banif in exchange for the loans. The bank hopes to find an investor before the end of the year to avoid a potential bail-in under new European rules that come into effect on January 1 and which would impose losses on holders of debt as well as deposits over 100,000 euros. Moody's ratings agency placed Banif's near-default ratings on review for a downgrade on Friday, citing concerns the bank's liquidity position and heightened risks of the bank requiring external support either from private or public sources.
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