Angola seeks to shake up, grow Portugal BCP bank-report

LISBON Jan 28 (Reuters) - Angola's state-controlled oil company Sonangol -- the largest single shareholder in Portugal's Millennium bcp -- wants the bank to gain global scale in a restructuring that involves a management shakeup, Expresso weekly said on Saturday.

The lender -- Portugal's largest by assets -- is hampered at home by the country's debt crisis and deep austerity imposed by a 78-billion-euro bailout. It needs to find fresh capital in the next few months to comply with new European rules, with cash from rapidly-growing Angola seen as one possible solution.

Expresso newspaper quoted Sonangol chief executive, Manuel Vicente, as saying the new expansion cycle for BCP will "add value to the Angolan and Portuguese companies" involved.

"We have a vision for the bank that involves reinforcing its international dimension. We have an ambition to create a world-scale bank," Vicente told the weekly, without elaborating.

According to Expresso, an expected replacement of BCP chief executive Carlos Santos Ferreira is the first step in the planned restructuring, and was coordinated with the Angolans during Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho's visit to Luanda in November, and backed by other major stakeholders.

Expresso and other local media have said this week that Nuno Amado, CEO of Santander Totta -- the Portuguese unit of Spain's Santander bank -- will replace Santos Ferreira, who will stay on as an adviser for internationalisation strategy. BCP officials declined to comment on the reports.

BCP has earlier turned to China and Brazil to find fresh capital, seeking to leverage the country's former colonial ties to meet a shortfall of up to 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion) under new European capital rules, most of which should be covered by financing from an EU/IMF bailout.

BCP's main attraction to potential shareholders is access to fast-growing markets in Angola, Mozambique and Poland.

Sonangol has an 11.6 percent stake in BCP and the two have a banking partnership in Angola. Some local media have said Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos told premier Passos Coelho in November Sonangol was ready to increase its stake. (Reporting By Andrei Khalip)