Chinese buyers descend on Lisbon

It may be a battered economy on the edge of Europe, but Portugal is rapidly becoming the hotspot for Chinese corporate ownership in Europe, particularly in the financial sector. Whether they like it or not, governments and regulators in Lisbon, Brussels and elsewhere will welcome them with open arms.

Chinese buyers descend on Lisbon

Portugal’s president Anibal Cavaco Silva (L) and China’s premier Li Keqiang (2nd R) attend a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing

Chinese buyers of Western banks and corporations are arriving in Europe in force – and many are disembarking first on Portuguese shores.

If regulators approve it, Haitong Securities, China’s second biggest broker, will soon be shaking up capital markets in Lisbon and beyond with the acquisition of BESI, previously the investment-banking arm of Portugal’s biggest listed bank, Banco Espírito Santo.

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