Lisbon, Portugal, 24 Oct – Portugal’s BPI bank plans to open 30 new branches of its Angolan subsidiary Banco Fomento de Angola in 2007, increasing its number of branches in the country to 100 after opening a further 15 before the end of this year, the bank said in a statement Monday.

Portugal’s third-largest private bank already operates 55 branches in Angola and plans to open a further 15 before the end of the year.

In Portugal, BPI said it would open a further 80 branches, added to 27 to be opened by the end of 2006, which would take the total number of branches in Portugal to 655.

BPI’s expansion plan was approved by the bank’s board of directors Friday along with the bank’s accounts for the third quarter.

Profit for the first nine months of the year was above analysts’ expectations and totaled 218.1 million euros, or a 38 percent year on year increase, of which 50.6 million euros are from the bank’s Angolan operations.

BPI is the target of a takeover bid launched by the Millenium BCP bank, which is still at a preliminary stage. (macauhub)