Finance Minister Confirms Novo Banco Closes With BPCE on 30 April — Final Price Tops €6.4 Billion as State and Resolution Fund Cash Out Above the Original €1.6 Billion Target

Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento confirmed on Thursday, 23 April 2026, that the sale of Novo Banco to France's Groupe BPCE will be closed next week, ending a process that started with a Memorandum of Understanding signed in June 2025 and clearing the way for the largest cross-border banking deal in the eurozone in more than a decade. The Government's reading is that the General Assembly will be held on Wednesday 29 April, with the share transfer and settlement the following day — Thursday 30 April.

BPCE is paying more than €6.4 billion for 100% of Novo Banco's capital — the figure agreed in June 2025 — but the price has moved above that anchor through the standard adjustment mechanism tied to the bank's financial performance at closing. The increment, reported by Observador and Público at around €200 million, lifts the implied total to roughly €6.6 billion. None of the parties has publicly confirmed the precise final figure.

Who Cashes Out, and How Much

Three sellers split the proceeds in line with their shareholdings:

• Lone Star Funds — 75%, the legacy 2017 stake. The Texas private-equity group is set to receive more than €4.8 billion, on top of dividends already extracted in recent years. Its original 2017 capital injection was approximately €1 billion.
• Fundo de Resolução (Bank Resolution Fund) — 14%, originally pencilled in for €867 million.
• Direção-Geral do Tesouro e Finanças (Treasury, via the Ministry of Finance) — 11%, originally pencilled in for €733.4 million.

Combined, the State and Resolution Fund were budgeted to receive about €1.6 billion; with the upward price adjustment, that combined cheque will be slightly larger. For the Resolution Fund, every additional euro reduces the legacy bill that has been carried by Portugal's banking sector since the 2014 BES collapse and the contingent capital agreement signed in 2017.

The Regulatory Path Is Now Clear

Two clearances had to be in place for the deal to close. The European Central Bank signed off the change-of-control on 16 April 2026 after a months-long Single Supervisory Mechanism review, and the European Commission's DG Competition issued its merger clearance earlier in the spring. With both authorisations in hand, the only remaining steps are the corporate ones — convening the shareholders, swapping the share register, and updating the registration with the Banco de Portugal.

Wednesday's General Assembly: New Board, New Bylaws, New Auditor

The 29 April General Assembly is the formal moment at which BPCE takes governance control. According to the integration plan reported by Público in late March:

• The three non-independent administrators tied to Lone Star will step down from the board.
• BPCE will introduce new bylaws reflecting its 100% ownership and group reporting requirements.
• A new statutory auditor will be appointed, replacing the incumbent EY.
• Chief executive Mark Bourke, in the role since 2022, will continue to lead the bank under French ownership — providing executive continuity through the integration.

What BPCE Is Buying

Novo Banco closed 2025 with net profit of €828 million, an 11% year-on-year increase, and currently holds approximately 10% of the Portuguese deposit and credit market — placing it among the country's five largest banks alongside Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Millennium BCP, Santander Totta and BPI. BPCE has signalled that around €500 million in 2025 dividends were frozen pending closing, applying the bank's standard 60% payout policy, and the French group's three-year guidance pencils in around €2.2 billion in dividends from the Portuguese subsidiary.

BPCE — France's second-largest banking group through its Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Épargne networks — already has a Portuguese footprint via subsidiaries Natixis (corporate and investment banking), Oney (consumer credit and payments) and Primus (auto financing). Novo Banco hands the group an instant retail and SME platform, vaulting it from a niche player to a top-five universal bank in Portugal in a single transaction.

The Loose End: BCP's Judicial Challenge

Banco Comercial Português (BCP/Millennium) filed a judicial challenge against the BPCE acquisition earlier in 2026, arguing that the contingent capital agreement and the underlying public-money trail were not properly handled. The challenge has not blocked the transaction's regulatory progression — the Lisbon administrative courts have allowed closing to proceed — but the litigation remains live and could still produce orders affecting the perimeter of what BPCE consolidates.

Lone Star's Exit Math

Lone Star injected approximately €1 billion when it acquired 75% of Novo Banco from the Banco de Portugal in October 2017, with the Resolution Fund retaining the remaining 25% and a contingent capital backstop for legacy losses. Eight and a half years later, the fund exits with more than €4.8 billion in cash, plus the dividends already pulled out — a return that crystallises with Thursday's signing.

For the Portuguese taxpayer, the exit removes a politically charged stake from the State balance sheet and converts it into a one-off cash inflow during a fiscal year in which the Government is seeking to consolidate its budget surplus position. For Novo Banco's customers, the immediate change is governance, not branding: the bank will continue to operate under the Novo Banco name with the existing branch network and management team during the integration period.

Sources: Lusa news wire (23 April 2026, 17:44), Público (23 April 2026), ECO (23 April 2026), Observador (23 April 2026 and 16 April 2026), Banco de Portugal regulatory filings.