The frantic round of deal-making in Portugal's banking
sector triggered by António Champalimaud's decision to sell off his
string of privately held banks has now come to a halt. The music
may have stopped, but the dancers are still eyeing each other to
see who might make the first move in another round of
consolidation. The key partner over which a takeover contest might
develop is Banco Português de Investimento - now the smallest
independent publicly held bank in Portugal since the proposed
merger between it and the family-dominated Banco Espirito Santo
fell through.
The end result of the break-up of the Champalimaud empire is that
there are now four main domestic banks. In the first rung are Banco
Comercial Português (BCP) and the state-owned Caixa Geral de
Depósitos, which between them control more than half of the
domestic market. Then, as second-tier players, are...
