Angola guarantee for BES local unit to be revoked in overhaul - cenbank
Mon Aug 4, 2014 8:59am EDT
* "Extraordinary" measures because of deteriorated loanbook
* Provisional administrators named to overhaul BESA
* Follows Portugal's 4.9 bln euro rescue for parent BES (Adds details, background)
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Angola's central bank on Monday announced
"extraordinary overhaul measures" for the local unit of Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo, saying a sovereign guarantee of most of its loans would be revoked.
The measures for Banco Espirito Santo Angola (BESA) closely followed Portugal's announcement of a 4.9 billion euros ($6.58 billion) rescue plan for BESA's parent.
Under this, Banco Espirito Santo, or BES, will be split into a "good bank", renamed Novo Banco, and a "bad bank",
which will house BES's exposures to the troubled Espirito Santo business empire as well as its Angolan subsidiary.
Banco Nacional de Angola said in a statement provisional administrators had been named to carry out the proposed overhaul of BES' Angolan unit BESA, citing the "deteriorated state" of the latter's credit portfolio.
I
t added that a sovereign guarantee extended by Angola in December, of up to $5.7 billion, to cover most of BESA's loan book, would be revoked "in the initial phase of implementation".
BESA's assets would be assessed and could be sold-off or restructured, the Angolan central bank said, adding that deposits at the bank would be guaranteed, and its business relations with existing clients would remain unchanged.
The crisis affecting BES, Portugal's largest listed bank, had highlighted its exposure in former colony Angola, where BESA is a major financial player with links to the ruling elite.
BES has been swept up in a growing financial drama involving its founding family. Three of the Espirito Santo holding companies have filed for bankruptcy protection in past weeks after revealing debts and accounting regularities.
Many banks in Angola, Africa's No 2 oil producer, have been hit by a surge in bad loans in recent years due to an economic slowdown. The IMF sees Angola's real GDP growth slowing this year to 3.9 percent from 4.1 percent in 2013 and 5.2 percent in 2012.
Angola broke its silence on the BES affair last month, when Angolan central bank governor Jose de Lima Massano admitted to parliament there were problems with BESA's credit portfolio that included bad loans. He provided no figures.
Massano said then BESA would need more capital to deal with bad loans.
In its statement on Monday, the Angolan central bank said it was announcing the overhaul measures for BESA because it had not to date received "unequivocal answers from the BESA shareholders about the possibility or terms of a capital increase".
(Reporting by Xola Potelwa,
Pascal Fletcher; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by
Joe Brock)