The European Commission has approved a bid placed by Spain’s Caixabank to takeover Portugal’s Banco BPI, paving the way for the Spanish bank to register the offer formally with regulators, reported Reuters.
Caixabank said that it was waiting for the European approval before registering the bid, which would have an impact on Portugal’s banking sector, where BPI is the second-largest listed lender.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Angolan investor Isabel dos Santos, BPI’s second-largest shareholder, has contested the bid by the Spanish bank.
Caixabank, which is already BPI’s largest shareholder with a 44.1% stake, launched the bid for all of BPI in February 2015 at EUR1.329 a share which has been rejected by the BPI board observing it as too low, said the publication.
