Generali days away from taking share in Banco CTT

The insurer Generali Tranquilidade is finalising its purchase of a share in the Portuguese banking services company Banco CTT.

According to business daily Negócios, the deal should be signed within the next two weeks and will place the insurer’s CEO, Pedro Carvalho as a non-executive board member of the bank which is linked to the company which operates Portugal’s private postal service.

The acquisition is for 8.71% of the bank’s capital via a capital increase of €25 million as announced in November, 2022 after months of behind-the-scenes negotiating, but the green light was only given by the European Central Bank a fortnight ago.

The ECB took months to agree to the acquisition because it had demanded additional information from both the insurer and CTT over questions related to product distribution agreements that are part of the partnership signed between Banco CTT and the owner of Tranquilidade, Açoreana & Logo.

There had also been issues over Generali’s voting rights as a minority shareholder in Banco CTT.

In addition to asking for additional information, the BCE, through the Bank of Portugal (BdP) had to carry out a ‘fit&proper’ process into Pedro Carvalho which passed.

Neither Banco CTT nor Generali Tranquilidade have made statements to the press.