China’s Fosun has offered to buy almost 17 per cent of Millennium BCP, Portugal’s largest listed bank, and potentially lift its stake to 30 per cent, following a halving in its share price in the year to date.
BCP said in a regulatory filing late on Saturday that Fosun Industrial Holdings had offered to pay €0.02 a share, equal to Friday’s closing price, in a private placement of 16.7 per cent of the bank’s share capital. According to the filing, Fosun was also considering increasing its shareholding to “20-30 per cent”.
Fosun, one of China’s most acquisitive companies, made its Millennium BCP offer a week after it agreed to pay $1.1bn for 86 per cent of Indian drugmaker Gland Pharma. In recent years, it has also snapped up France’s Club Med and the top Portuguese insurer in Europe.