Caixabank hires Deloitte for numbers crunch over NB acquisition mull

The Spanish bank Caixabank, which in Portugal owns the bank BPI, has hired Deloitte to help it to decide if it will make a move to acquire Portugal’s Novobanco according to the Spanish news source El Confidencial.

Caixabank has contracted the bank to “help fine tune a numbers crunch” regarding its valuation of the Portuguese bank which could be worth anywhere between €5Bn and €7Bn. Spanish investment bank JB Capital puts the value at €6Bn.

The sale and/or floatation of the bank is in a now or never phase with majority shareholder US fund Lone Star having two options on the table: An IPO in either June or September (the latter more likely) or a selloff or all of part of the bank.

Other banking groups were also said to have Novobanco on their shopping list such as the French group BPCE which holds Natixis and Portuguese public bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD).

However, this week the CEO of CGD ruled out acquiring 100% of Novobanco saying “we might buy something that is complementary” (to our business strategy).

This is because any bid by CGD for Novobanco would not be viable because of the EU’s competition rules according to Paulo Macedo in an interview with CNN.