Who we are

Banco Espírito Santo is the second largest private financial institution in Portugal by net assets, which totalled 75.2 billion EUR at the end of 2008. BES has an average 20.7 percent market share in the domestic market and 1.9 million Clients. On the 16th of April 2009, BES has concluded its share capital increase, which makes it the largest listed bank in Portugal and the 4th largest PSI 20 member by weight with a market cap of 4.19 billion EUR as of 16th of April 2009.

BES has shown particular ability to diversify its revenue sources by ranking highly in strategic business areas such as Retail, Private Banking and Asset Management, Corporate Banking, and Investment Banking. The Bank makes consistent effort to control costs, having posted a cost-to-income of 53.0 percent in 2008, which places BES among top positions in the Iberian market in terms of efficiency. BES origins date back to 1869; since then the Bank has been following an organic growth in domestic market in all main business areas, while complementing profit growth with new ventures and with international banking activity focused on countries with cultural ties with Portugal and / or high growth.

What we do – International Activity

The BES internationalisation strategy aims to (i) support Portuguese firms abroad, accompanying them to their export markets; (ii) cover the countries with cultural strong affinities with Portugal and countries with Portuguese communities, in particular Angola and Brazil.

BES’ international operations are developed through:
> 6 Subsidiaries and Associated Companies: BES Angola, BES Oriente (Macao), BES Investimento do Brasil, BES Vénétie (France), ES Bank (USA) and ES plc (Ireland)
> 6 International Branches: Spain, New York, London, Cape Verde, Nassau and Cayman Islands
> 12 Representative Offices: Toronto, Newark (3), Caracas, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Lausanne, Cologne, Milan, Johannesburg and Shanghai

Dedicated teams to cover all the trade finance business value chain

> Structured Trade Finance: BES is the only Portuguese Bank operating in this high-end sophisticated business line, with a team based in London, Brazil, N.Y and Lisbon. Today BES is a reference bank in soft and hard commodity finance in Brazil, and a recurrent partner in Angola in the transactions of oil and mining industry.
> Export Finance: With a strong relationship with importers and exporters, namely in Iberia, Angola and Brazil, and dedicated teams in Lisbon, London, Luanda and Miami, BES is well positioned to cover the export finance business line, setting-up structures to mitigate Credit & Political risk, based on Export Credit Agencies and private insurance coverage.
> Traditional Trade Services: BES is Market leader in Portugal with 27 percent market share, with a commercial team exclusively dedicated to support our corporate customers that includes training, coaching and advisory in trade finance structures. For the 3rd consecutive year BES received the “Best Trade Finance Bank in Portugal” award from Global Finance Magazine, and is recognized by ist international peers as an expert to Angola and Brazilian markets.