* Millennium bcp tests market for possible Polish unit sale
* Bidders may include Raiffeisen, BNP Paribas, Intesa or PKO
* Bank Millennium shares surge more than 9 percent
(Adds details, market reaction)
By Maciej Onoszko and Adrian Krajewski
WARSAW, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Millennium bcp (BCP.LS),
Portugal’s biggest listed bank, has looked at a possible sale of
its controlling stake in Poland’s sixth biggest bank, Bank
Millennium (BIGW.WA), sources familiar with the plans told
Reuters.
If it decides to sell, BCP would become the third bank from
one of the European Union’s troubled peripheral euro zone
countries to abandon Poland to help boost its capital position
at home, following exits by Allied Irish Banks and Greece’s EFG
Eurobank Ergasias (EFGr.AT).
“The search is on, with BCP checking out the market, looking
for possible buyers,” said one official familiar with BCP’s
thinking.
Another source said a sale could include the buyer also
investing in the Portuguese parent to help boost its
capitalisation and ensure coordination of efforts.
Millennium bcp declined to comment.
Shares in the Polish lender jumped by over 9 percent after
the Reuters report and were up 5.3 percent by 1535 GMT. BCP
shares erased earlier losses and were up 3.5 percent.
Last week, BCP Chief Executive Carlos Ferraira said the
65.5-percent stake in Bank Millennium, valued at about $2.3
billion, was a strategic asset. [ID:nLDE7112C3]
But the bank and local rivals have been shut out of
interbank funding markets during the euro zone sovereign debt
crisis, making them dependent on European Central Bank funds and
under pressure to consider asset sales.
Santos Ferreira has said he expected BCP’s reliance on ECB
funds to fall through 2011.
While Poland is one of the European Union’s more resilient
economies, analysts say its 70-percent foreign-owned banking
sector is ripe for consolidation and also fragmented enough to
let in a new entrant that had missed out on earlier
opportunities.