The Portuguese bank BPN, which was nationalised by the state in the midst of the financial crisis, will be privatised again, the government said on Thursday.
"Since the worst of the financial crisis is over, we can return this financial institution to the private sector," Finance Minister Teixeira dos Santos said at a press conference.
Ninety-five percent of the bank's capital will be sold off in a tender to financial institutions. The remaining five percent will be held by employees.
BPN was set up in 1993 and has 300,000 customers. It was nationalised in November 2008 after losses of 1.8 billion euros (2.7 billion dollars) due to fraudulent operations aggravated the effects of the crisis.
