In response to questions from Lusa, Abanca said that, "after the completion of the operational and technological integration operation, scheduled for 2025, EuroBic Abanca will be Abanca".
Spanish group Abanca, which operated in Portugal through a subsidiary, completed the purchase of Eurobic in July 2024 following regulatory approvals. Therefore, the value of the deal was not disclosed.
Following this acquisition, Abanca decided to close the branch in Portugal and integrate the entire business of the Portuguese branch (all assets and liabilities) into what is now called EuroBic Abanca.
Thus, the group will no longer operate through a subsidiary and will operate in Portugal through an autonomous bank.
According to Abanca, the measure aims to simplify the corporate structure, reduce costs and also "reinforce the competitive position of the Abanca group in the Portuguese financial sector, consolidating all of the Abanca group's business in Portugal into a single company".
For now, while this integration is taking place, the bank is called EuroBic Abanca but this is a transitional brand and when the integration is complete, it will be called simply Abanca.
As the operational and technological integration process will take place during this year, the new name should be valid from 2026.
In July 2024, when it completed the purchase of EuroBic, Abanca said that with this acquisition it became the seventh banking entity in Portugal, quadrupling the number of customers to 325 thousand, tripling the commercial network to 251 branches and making the business volume amount to 20.3 billion euros.
EuroBic was owned by businesswoman Isabel dos Santos (daughter of former president José Eduardo dos Santos), but in 2020, following the journalistic investigation 'Luanda Leaks', it was announced that Isabel dos Santos would leave EuroBic's shareholding structure to "safeguard confidence in the institution", EuroBic said in a statement.
The issue of EuroBic's ownership then began to worry banking authorities and since then Abanca has been in negotiations to buy the Angolan bank, but the agreement only took place in 2023, with the purchase being completed in July 2024.
The Spanish group Abanca has as its president the Spanish-Venezuelan businessman Juan Carlos Escotet.
This Tuesday, January 28, Abanca presents the 2024 results in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia), with the presence of Escotet. Between January and September last year, Abanca had profits of 988.1 million euros, more than double the amount in the same period in 2023.
