Shareholders of Portuguese bank Banco Comercial Portuguese (BCP) are due to meet on 9 November at the General Meeting to deliberate and possibly adopt amendments that will open up the way for the entry of Chinese group Fosun Industrial Holdings Limited in the financial institution, according to a market statement.

Shareholders will vote on the amendment or elimination of statutory limitations on voting rights, which is required due to an amendment to the legal framework of credit institutions and financial companies and which must be exercised by the end of the year.

This general meeting may mean negotiations with the Fosun group will move forward, given that one of the demands made was to change the voting right cap from 20% to 30%, so that the voting rights correspond to the stake held.

One of the other points on the general meeting’s agenda is the increase in the number of members of the Board of Directors, as the Fosun group has also included the nomination of at least two directors in its conditions.

In August the Chinese made a firm bid to buy a stake of 16.7% of the share capital of Banco Comercial Portugues and said it also wanted to increase its stake through secondary market operations or future capital increases in order to take a stake of between 20% and 30%.

The main shareholders of BCP are currently Angolan oil company Sonangol with 17.84%, Banco Sabadell with 5.07%, Energias de Portugal group with 2.71% and the Interoceanico group with 2.05%. (macauhub)