Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.8487 — Lone Star/Nani Holdings/Novo Banco) — Candidate case for simplified procedure (Text with EEA relevance. )
Date: 2017-06-22
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: banking, economic concentration, investment company, merger control








C_2017198EN.01000801.xml










22.6.2017   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 198/8





Prior notification of a concentration
(Case M.8487 — Lone Star/Nani Holdings/Novo Banco)
Candidate case for simplified procedure
(Text with EEA relevance)
(2017/C 198/08)






1.


On 12 June 2017, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the Lone Star Funds L.P. (‘Lone Star’, United States) acquire, within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation, control of the whole of Novo Banco, S.A. (‘Novo Banco’, Portugal) via Nani Holdings, SGPS, S.A. (‘Nani Holdings’ Portugal), by way of a purchase of shares. Novo Banco is currently controlled by the Portuguese Resolution Fund.










2.


The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:






—


Novo Banco was created as a new legal entity and ‘Bridge Bank’ on 3 August 2014, pursuant to a decision adopted by Banco de Portugal, and to which selected assets and liabilities of Banco Espírito Santo (‘BES’, a Portuguese universal bank) were transferred on the basis of the same resolution measure, which was approved by the Commission’s 2014 State Aid Decision (SA.39250). Novo Banco remains a universal bank, with five main business segments: (i) domestic commercial banking; (ii) asset management; (iii) life insurance; (iv) financial markets and (v) international commercial banking.










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Nani Holdings is a 100 % subsidiary of LSF Nani Investments S.à.r.l. (Luxembourg), which is indirectly owned by various Lone Star Funds.










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Lone Star is a private equity firm that invests globally in real estate, equity, credit and other financial assets. Since the establishment of its first fund in 1995, Lone Star has organised 17 private equity funds (the ‘Lone Star Funds’).














3.


On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved. Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under the Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in this Notice.










4.


The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.
Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by email to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference M.8487 — Lone Star/Nani Holdings/Novo Banco, to the following address:





European Commission




Directorate-General for Competition




Merger Registry




1049 Bruxelles/Brussel




BELGIQUE/BELGIË










(1)  OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘Merger Regulation’).

(2)  OJ C 366, 14.12.2013, p. 5.