Portugal may have to recapitalize state-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depositos once hefty losses are made in the sale of bank Novo Banco, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said on Thursday.
Novo Banco was created by taking on the healthy assets of the Banco Espirito Santo (BES), which was bailed out in August by the state in a 4.9 billion euro (6.25 billion U.S. dollar) plan after a net loss of 3.58 billion euros (4.45 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of this year.
Passos Coelho said it was "very unlikely" that taxpayers would be directly affected. However, he admitted indirect impact.
He said the BES crisis was due to "bad management", rather than bad supervision.
Portuguese authorities were hoping to sell Novo Banco. China's Fosun Group, Spain's Banco Santander and Portugal's BPI have expressed interest in buying the bank.