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Overview

China Eximbank provides a $200 million export buyer's credit loan to Banco Espírito Santo for on-lending purposes

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$206,794,258
Commitment Year•2013Country of Activity•PortugalDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•PortugalSector•Banking And Financial ServicesFlow Type•Loan

Status

Project lifecycle

Pipeline: Commitment

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
Dec 2, 2013
Last repayment (originally scheduled)
Dec 1, 2016

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Ultimate beneficial owners

At least 25% host country ownership

Funding agencies

State-owned Policy Banks

  • Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank)

Receiving agencies

Private Sector

  • Banco Espírito Santo, S.A. (BES)

Loan description

China Eximbank provides a $200 million export buyer's credit loan to Banco Espírito Santo for on-lending purposes

Interest type•UnknownMaturity•3 years

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

On December 2, 2013, the Export-Import Bank of China signed a $200 million export buyer's credit to Banco Espírito Santo (BES) for general corporate purposes. The borrowing terms included a 3-year maturity. The loan was to be on-lent by BES to local companies to support the trade financing business generated by China's exports to Portugal. Banco Espírito Santo (BES) collapsed in August 2014.

Staff comments

1. Banco Espírito Santo (BES) was a Portuguese bank based in Lisbon that on August 4, 2014 was split int two banks: Novo Banco, which kept its healthy operations, and a "bad bank" to keep its toxic assets. It once was the second-largest listed Portuguese bank and the ninth-largest contributor to the PSI-20 index. BES was the second-largest private financial institution in Portugal in terms of net assets (€80,700 million in March 2011), with an average market share of 20.3% in Portugal and 2.1 million clients. On August 3, 2014, Banco de Portugal, Portugal's central bank, announced a €4.4 billion bailout of BES that heralded the end of BES as a private bank. The bailout was funded by the Portuguese Resolution Fund (Portuguese: Fundo de Resolução). The bank was split into a healthy bank, Novo Banco, while the toxic assets remained in the existing bank until its liquidation in July 2016.