Banco Espirito sells stake to meet loan repayments, announces Bento as new CEO . . . . . . . . . . . In the wake of the latest developments of Banco Espirito Santo financial problem, the Portuguese bank said it sold 4.99 percent stake to meet loan repayments and appointed Vitor Bento as a new CEO to replace Ricardo Salgado. The decision was announced on Monday following a meeting with the Portuguese Central Bank, which called for urgent solutions to calm markets. “Espirito Santo Financial Group SA said it slashed its holdings by 20% after selling the stake to meet repayment obligations under a margin loan,” according to Bloomberg. The problem erupted on July 10 when Espirito Santo International SA missed payments on commercial paper, causing a 36 percent tumble in the bank’s shares the previous week in addition to a cut in its credit rating by both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service. As of 9:42 a.m. in Lisbon, Banco Espirito stock dropped 6.4% to 0.45 euros. Now, there are concerns that the bank’s financial problems could have an impact on Portugal’s macroeconomics. “The example of a Portuguese bank showed us in the last few days how quickly the so-called markets are roiled, how quickly uncertainty returns and how fragile the whole euro construction still is,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in the weekend. European stocks gained for a second day at the open on Monday, as the worries of Portuguese banking crisis eased amid anticipation of the upcoming economic data and corporate results. The US calendar will be quite shy from economic data, shifting focus to Citigroup while it unveils quaterly results alongside an expected multibillion-dollar settlement with the US Justice Department. The Stoxx 600 rose 0.65% to 339.10 as of 05:07 a.m. ET, after posting its biggest weekly loss since March on Friday. Consumer staples led the pan-European benchmark the most, with 1.00% rise. The groups of Materials and health care followed suit, rising 0.98% and 0.82% respectively. - Britain`s FTSE 100 rose 0.72% to 6,738.55 - France`s CAC 40 rose 0.57% to 4,340.98 - Germany`s DAX 30 rose 0.70% to 9,734.16 Among equity movers, Shire Plc rose 2.61% to 4,997.1 pence as the UK drugmaker received a revised offer from AbbVie Inc. The new takeover proposal is valued at more than $53 billion. #egyptyard
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 11:05:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015